South Korea to mandate AI labels on digital ads amid surge in deepfake-driven scams

South Korea will introduce mandatory labels for all AI-generated advertisements from early 2026, as the government moves to curb a surge in deceptive promotions using fabricated experts and deepfake celebrities to endorse products ranging from health supplements to cosmetics and gambling services.

The decision was announced after a policy meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Wednesday, where officials warned that AI-powered manipulation is increasingly distorting online markets and exposing vulnerable consumers to high-risk content. Authorities said they will intensify screening, step up takedowns of misleading ads and impose stronger penalties to deter misuse.

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Lee Dong-hoon, director of economic and financial policy at the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said the rapid spread of AI-generated content is “disrupting market order”, stressing that clear labelling is essential to help users identify synthetic visuals or audio. Under the plan, anyone creating, editing or uploading AI-made photos or videos will be required to tag them, and platforms will be barred from altering or removing those labels.

The rise in problematic ads has been sharp. The Food and Drug Safety Ministry flagged over 96,700 illegal online ads for food and pharmaceutical products in 2024, and nearly 69,000 through September this year, compared with about 59,000 detected in 2023. Officials say the misuse now extends beyond regulated products into private tutoring services, beauty promotions and black-market gambling networks, overwhelming current monitoring systems.

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The push for labelling is part of a wider crackdown on AI-related digital harm. South Korea is confronting a troubling increase in crimes involving synthetic media, including a high-profile case last month in which a Seoul court sentenced a man to life imprisonment for running an online blackmail ring that used deepfake sexual imagery to exploit more than 200 victims, many of them minors.

Under the new framework, authorities plan to introduce harsher fines and punitive damages of up to five times the financial losses caused by those who knowingly circulate false or manipulated information. Regulators are also preparing faster review timelines — including 24-hour assessments and emergency blocking procedures — and expanding the monitoring capabilities of agencies such as the Food and Drug Safety Ministry and the Korea Consumer Agency, partly by deploying AI tools themselves.

While the government is moving to limit AI-linked risks, it is simultaneously accelerating national investments in advanced technologies. Prime Minister Kim said the aim is to “minimize the side effects of new technologies” without slowing innovation, highlighting South Korea’s ambitions to lead in AI-specific semiconductors. The country’s major chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, already account for more than 65% of the global memory chip market.

The science and telecommunications ministry also announced that mobile carriers will be required to shift to standalone 5G networks, considered better suited for AI-intensive applications due to improved speed and latency, as part of their licence renewal conditions for 3G and LTE services.