The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has applied for an arrest warrant against Kim Se-ui, the head of the controversial far-right YouTube channel Hoverlab. The development follows a detailed police investigation concluding that a series of viral allegations concerning the prominent actor Kim Soo-hyun were entirely false, relying on edited message logs and audio files generated by artificial intelligence.
According to documents from the Seoul Gangnam Police Precinct, authorities determined that Kim Se-ui knowingly distributed the fabricated materials for financial gain, including digital advertising revenue. The fallout from the online campaign has had a devastating impact on the actor’s career, disrupting his professional commitments and leaving him in need of ongoing psychiatric care.
The controversy began in March 2025, shortly after the death by suicide of the actress Kim Sae-ron. The Hoverlab channel published eleven screenshots of a 2016 chat log from the messaging application KakaoTalk, claiming they proved Kim Soo-hyun had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with the actress while she was still a minor.
Read more: Korean Star Kim Soo-hyun Denies Underage Dating Claims Amid Kim Sae-ron’s Death Controversy
However, forensic analysis by the police revealed a different reality. Investigators discovered that Kim Se-ui had received original screenshots of a conversation between the late actress and an unverified, deleted account. The suspect then edited the images in seven distinct places, manually altering the name of the unknown sender to read “Kim Soo-hyun” before publishing them.
The deception deepened two months later, when Hoverlab released an audio recording purported to feature the voice of the deceased actress. The police have now concluded that this file was completely synthetic, generated using deepfake voice technology to mimic her speech patterns.
The investigation has also taken an unusual turn regarding the legal counsel involved in the case. The police have officially booked the legal representative of Kim Sae-ron’s bereaved family as a co-conspirator.
Read more: Kim Sae-ron’s Legacy: A Wake-Up Call for the Korean Entertainment Industry?
Documents indicate that the attorney did not merely advise their clients, but actively supplied the raw material to Hoverlab, helping to systematically organise and amplify the false narrative. Ko Sang-rok, the legal representative for Kim Soo-hyun, noted on social media that his client had not filed a complaint against the family’s lawyer. Instead, independent investigators uncovered evidence of a conspiracy, leading to the highly unusual decision to convert a defense attorney into a criminal suspect.
For Kim Soo-hyun, the financial and personal consequences of the digital campaign have been catastrophic. The police stated in their warrant application that the widespread distribution of the hoax effectively dismantled the actor’s social foundation and brought his economic activities to a halt, threatening his long-term professional survival.
Kim Se-ui has denied all charges, claiming during a recent live broadcast that the prosecution’s request for a warrant is a political maneuver designed to obstruct an unrelated investigation he was conducting into a politician in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The court will review the arrest warrant on Tuesday at the Seoul Central District Court, where a judge will determine whether the YouTuber will be detained ahead of a formal trial. The case serves as a stark warning regarding the weaponisation of generative intelligence in the digital media ecosystem, demonstrating how easily synthetic data can be deployed to disrupt a human life.
