VICTIMS’ FACES BEING USED IN SEX FILMS
‘Deepfake’ pornographic footage being posted online
AN app fakes porn footage – making it look like ordinary people are taking part in films. The so-called “deepfake” technology has been banned by websites including Reddit, Twitter and even sex site Pornhub this week.
It is created by feeding sex footage and thousands of images of a person’s face into an app that spits out a false, but realistic, sex tape.
Now politician Janet FinchSaunders has spoken out against the sick web trend.
Previously the Tory AM was targeted by perverts who posted pornographic footage featuring her face online.
“There is an awful lot more that needs to be done in terms of monitoring and prosecuting,” Ms FinchSaunders said.
“We hear of youngsters being bullied online but something like this is horrendous.
“The Welsh Government, the UK Government should work together to monitor it and take action.
“There needs to be legislation to prevent people doing this and if it can be traced back to who did it they should face prosecution.”
She dubbed what happened to her “a horrendous experience”.
“Someone used my photo in a distasteful manner and the police seized their equipment,” she said.
“They let them off with a caution, although I wanted them to go to court.” The incident affected her family. “I felt violated and upset and my daughter and son were devastated to think someone could do that,” she said.
“The police did not take the kind of action I would have liked.”
She stumbled across the material as she looked for news coverage of a meeting she attended in Llanrwst on February 16, 2012.
“I would never have known about it had I not been at a public meeting the night before,” she said.
“It was quite an unpleasant site where there was almost a sadistic tone toward women. There was quite abusive language. “I had a real shock,” she said. Phoney smut tapes featuring kids could already be in circulation.
Images of actress Emma Watson when she was as young as 10 have turned up on deepfake forums.
Before that one forum on Reddit warned users posting deepfakes featuring children would be banned.
On Reddit – where many deepfakes were circulated – one person wrote: “My mind just screams ‘Black Mirror!’”
Elsewhere a user going by the name Gravity Horse admitted deepfakes were “derogatory, vulgar, and blindsiding to the women that deepfakes works on.”
Gravity Horse then claimed “the work that we create here in this community is not with malicious intent”.
“We are painting with revolutionary, experimental technology,” they said.
Gravity Horse also insisted “nothing could stop” the advances.
Dr Martin Graff, reader in psychology at the University of South Wales, believes this kind of activity is becoming more prolific because of increasingly sophisticated software.
“With the advent of social media it makes it easier to post it around the place,” he said.
“You can post these things easily and in a straightforward manner.”
He blamed the disconnect people have between their real and online lives.
“People probably do it because with internet communication comes disinhibition,” he said.
“People become less inhibited about what they do online.
“That might go some way to explaining it.”
He believed this accounted almost one in five cases.
“The effect on the individual would depend on the individual but it would obviously be very insulting,” Dr Graff said.
“It could have quite a big impact, in the same way as other kinds of internet harassment has an impact on people.
“It is powerful, as it could be potentially available to an infinite audience.”
Female celebrities have been widely targeted.
These have included Woman star Gal Gadot, Grande and Taylor Swift.
“It would be terribly upsetting,” Dr Graff said.
“The fact is that we live in a more open world and everything is available to everyone.
“There seems to be people doing this kind of thing with ex-partners and other things.”
Nicholas Fearn is editor of Welsh technology site TechDragons.
“These videos are extremely alarming because they look convincing,” he said.
“Celebrities such as Katy Perry and Taylor Swift have been included in them. for Wonder Arianna
“There’s nothing stopping crooks from getting hold of your own videos and swapping your face.”
The UK Safer Internet Centre’s Laura Higgins said: “Quite often it is teens doing this. It is the sort of people who find 4Chan hilarious.”
That is the website where hundreds of nude celebrity photos were leaked in 2014.
“It’s done less for sexual purposes than because people have this thing and they can do it,” Ms Higgins said.
“They are doing it because they can and they are getting kicks from it.”
She said it would be “awful” to be a victim of it, but thought it was probably a passing trend.
“We deal with adult victims of revenge porn and this could be just as damaging,” she said.
She urged anyone who discovered images of children being used to report it.
Criminal defence lawyer Joy Merriam, a former chairman of the Law Society’s access to justice committee, said: “There is an argument that it would fall under revenge porn legislation, or more generally the Malicious Communications Act.
“And if you are going to fabricate an image of someone that would be an aggravated feature.”
Ms Merriam admitted “nothing on social media surprises me”.
“I can imagine this happening among immature teens, as an extension of bullying, where they trick someone into sending an indecent image of someone and then circulate it,” Ms Merriam said.
“But if they are unable to do that they might mock one up and tell everyone it’s genuine.
“That would cause an enormous amount of distress.”