President Lee vows to dismantle illegal filming sites, block distribution at every stage

President Lee Jae Myung said Thursday that the government would "fundamentally disable" websites distributing illegal filming content and make a full shift toward blocking the entire chain of distribution and spread.

Lee made the remarks in a post on X, formerly Twitter, vowing to "eradicate the roots of illegal filming content distribution."

Lee said the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Communications Commission and the Korean National Police Agency had jointly conducted an in-depth analysis of illegal sites and developed a comprehensive response plan. He acknowledged the limits of the government's previous approach, saying authorities had supported victims in requesting the removal of illegal content but had been unable to stop operators who ignored takedown requests, reposted deleted videos or migrated to new sites to continue their crimes.

"We will now change our approach," Lee said. "We will not stop at removing posts — we will sever the very structure that allows these crimes to repeat." He added that there would be "no exceptions," saying authorities would pursue offenders "to the end using every available means and capability," even those hiding behind overseas servers to evade investigators, and hold them strictly accountable under the law.

Lee said he was determined to ensure that "shameless crimes that trample on the dignity and humanity of others for profit can no longer find a foothold in the Republic of Korea."