"Xiaoyu" Zhu Yuchen used deepfake technology to transplant the faces of politicians, entertainers, and Internet celebrities onto the faces of pornographic heroines, and sold them for profit. A light sentence in the first instance can avoid imprisonment, which aroused public discussion.

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[Reporter Qian Lizhong/Taipei Report] The Legislative Yuan will pass the amendment to the Criminal Law for the third reading yesterday, adding the "Crime of Interfering with Privacy and False Videos" to prevent crimes like the "Xiaoyu Case" from using deepfake technology (Deepfake) to make profits. The phenomenon of lenient sentences or even fines due to insufficient regulations is repeated.

The legal community believes that after the amendment is passed, similar crimes will have a legal basis for heavy penalties. Not only does the statutory penalty not meet the provisions of Yike Fines and cannot be Yike fines, but each crime can be punished with up to seven years in prison. , the sentence may exceed seven years.

Regarding the Xiaoyu case, "Xiaoyu" Zhu Yuchen, together with his assistant Zhuang Xinrui, used deepfake technology to transplant facial features, transplanting the faces of politicians, entertainers, and Internet celebrities to the faces of pornographic heroines, and selling them for profit. 13.38 million yuan, including legislator Gao Jiayu, Kaohsiung city councilor Huang Jie, and even the president, a total of 119 celebrities were victimized.

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At that time, the criminal law did not have the crime of "obstructing sexual privacy and false sexual images". The New Taipei District Court could only punish according to the crimes of improper use of personal information in the Personal Information Act, trafficking in obscene images, and aggravated defamation. The crime of improper use of personal information with a sentence of less than one year of imprisonment will be punished; considering the victims of each crime and the different intentions of the crime, the punishment will be divided into 119 crimes. On July 21 last year, Xiaoyu was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Deyike was fined 1.98 million yuan; Zhuang Xinrui was sentenced to three years and eight months, and Deyike was fined 1.32 million yuan, and 13.38 million yuan of criminal income from the two men was confiscated.

Since there were as many as 119 victims, the two defendants were fined in the first trial, which attracted Gao Jiayu and many other victims to question whether it was too light.

The New Taipei District Prosecutor's Office, which prosecuted the case, also believed that the sentence was too light and has filed an appeal. The whole case is now under trial at the second instance.

New technological crimes cannot be severely punished, giving birth to a new chapter in the Criminal Law

Lawyer Sun Ruilian said that cases such as the Xiaoyu case that used new technology to commit crimes, causing hundreds of innocent people to suffer, but the perpetrators were not severely punished, prompted the criminal law to add crimes of interfering with privacy and false images. This amendment is necessary and similar in the future. The case is that each crime can be punished with a basic sentence of less than seven years, which does not comply with Yike’s provision that the fine should be limited to a basic sentence of less than five years and a prison sentence of less than six months. If you commit this crime, you will be imprisoned. Then increase it to achieve the effect of deterrence.

Lawyer Ding Yuren said that after the adoption of the new amendment, similar fines in the case of Xiaoyu could not be fined because the original sentence was less than seven years. If there were many victims, the judge decided that the crimes and intentions of the crimes were different and the punishment should be combined separately, and the combination should be implemented The sentence may exceed seven years.