This week on the Lock and Code podcast…
On August 15, the town of San Francisco launched a wholly new battle in opposition to the world of deepfake porn—it sued the web sites that make the abusive materials really easy to create.
“Deepfakes,” as they’re typically referred to as, are faux pictures and movies that make the most of synthetic intelligence to swap the face of 1 particular person onto the physique of one other. The know-how went viral within the late 2010s, as unbiased movie editors would swap the actors of 1 movie for an additional—changing, say, Michael J. Fox in Again to the Future with Tom Holland.
However very quickly into the know-how’s debut, it started getting used to create pornographic pictures of actresses, celebrities, and, extra not too long ago, on a regular basis excessive schoolers and faculty college students. Much like the specter of “revenge porn,” wherein abusive exes extort their previous companions with the potential launch of sexually express images and movies, “deepfake porn” is typically used to tarnish somebody’s popularity or to embarrass them amongst family and friends.
However deepfake porn is barely totally different from the normal understanding of “revenge porn” in that it may be created with none actual relationship to the sufferer. Complete teams of strangers can take the picture of 1 particular person and put it onto the physique of a intercourse employee, or an grownup movie star, or one other one that was filmed having intercourse or posing nude.
The know-how to create deepfake porn is extra accessible than ever, and it’s led to a worldwide disaster for teenage women.
In October of 2023, a reported group of greater than 30 women at a highschool in New Jersey had their likenesses utilized by classmates to make sexually express and pornographic deepfakes. In March of this yr, two teenage boys have been arrested in Miami, Florida for allegedly creating deepfake nudes of female and male classmates who have been between the ages of 12 and 13. And in the beginning of September, this month, the BBC reported that police in South Korea have been investigating deepfake pornography rings at two main universities.
Whereas particular person faculties and native police departments in america are tackling deepfake porn harassment because it arises—with suspensions, expulsions, and arrests—the method is sluggish and reactive.
Which is partly why San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional David Chiu and his workforce took intention at not the people who create and unfold deepfake porn, however on the web sites that make it really easy to take action.
At present, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we converse with San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional David Chiu about his workforce’s lawsuit in opposition to 16 deepfake porn web sites, the town’s historical past in defending Californians, and the severity of abuse that these web sites supply as a paid service.
“A minimum of certainly one of these web sites particularly promotes the non-consensual nature of this. I’ll simply quote: ‘Think about losing time taking her out on dates when you may simply use web site X to get her nudes.’”
David Chiu, San Francisco Metropolis Legal professional
Tune in at this time for the total dialog.
Present notes and credit:
Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed beneath Inventive Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)
Hear up—Malwarebytes doesn’t simply discuss cybersecurity, we offer it.
Defend your self from on-line assaults that threaten your identification, your information, your system, and your monetary well-being with our unique supply for Malwarebytes Premium for Lock and Code listeners.