Petitions Against RPS Fanfiction vs. Deepfakes – What’s Going Down On K-Twitter

Here’s the lowdown.
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Koreaboo

The K-Twitterverse has recently been swept up with protests and petitions, regarding two important matters. The first targets RPS, or alpaseu, which refers to fanfiction or fanart that portrays real people. More often than not, these RPS works are rated 18+ and frequently intertwines same-sex character storylines.

And netizens have taken to Twitter to advocate that RPS is a form of sexual harassment.

Deepfake consumer site homepage. | Lawtalk

The second matter involves K-Pop deepfakes, by which AI technology is being used to morph female idols’ faces onto pornographic works. According to research statistics, 25% of deepfake victims globally are female K-Pop idols.

Highly sexualized thumbnails for female idol fancams. Not deepfakes. | @ae__vely/Twitter

However, the issues have been pit against each other. A group of netizens mainly comprised of females are supporting petitions to severely punish deepfakes, while another group comprised mainly of male netizens support motions to punish RPS. Statistically, RPS is often written by female fans and deepfakes are mostly consumed by males.

A search done by one particular netizen showed that no male idol deepfakes exist on consumer-targeted sites.

A quick search was carried out by netizen @dxxpfakeout using BTS, a globally recognized and popular group, as an example. It retrieved no results. Conversely, it brought about suggestions of recent popular videos including that of BLACKPINK‘s Jennie and Cosmic Girls’ Luda.

| @dxxpfakeout/Twitter

Petitions are running high for both issues, although netizens advocate two different issues with divided opinions about the other. Many female netizens have claimed that the issue against RPS was started up by male netizens who were angered at those calling for punishment regarding deepfakes and the Nth room. Many are also angered at the way news articles are drawing comparisons between RPS and the Nth room, one of the largest sexual assault and trafficking cases in history.

An article on RPS has come up…? They are theorizing it as if Nth room = RPS while they are dismissing female idol deepfakes as if it can’t be helped just because they are idols. There are many people appearing now that are hopping on the RPS hate bandwagon.

— @u_uriuriuri

A few celebrities have also spoken up on the matter, including rapper BeWhy and rapper Rohann. Both petitions have reached over 200,000 signatures.

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