Deep Fakes & AI — The rise of online harassment on women
Trigger Warning: Sexual abuse and harassment
“Words are but wind but seeing is believing”- Anon. In the technological world of today, many individuals not only scroll through social media but also post videos and voice recordings quite often. This gives rise to a war of disinformation — the infamous ‘DeepFake’. (Chesney & Citron, 2019) Deep fakes refer to manipulated videos or other forms of digital media — such media is developed by advanced artificial intelligence by using legitimate data to build false images and sounds that actually appear to be legitimate. (Shao, 2020) This article will explore the reality of ‘Deepfakes’ and how this reality promotes the oppression of feminism, sexualisation of women, harassment, revenge and misogyny.
The main concern of ‘DeepFakes’ is its negative impacts on leaders and/or influential people. However, one cannot neglect the fact that such manipulation also has negative psychological effects, such as humiliation, on individuals. Even more so, when considering women. (Chivers, 2019). The internet is already an extremely toxic environment for women, and the rise of ‘DeepFakes’ does not make it any better (“Toxic Twitter — Women’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse on Twitter”, 2019). The rise of DeepFakes hinders much progress made in the fight towards women’s equality and safety. Such artificial intelligence technology brought about a detrimental shift to women’s objectification and an increasing form of sexual violence
‘DeepNude’ is an AI application explicitly aimed at women (Cole, 2019). The application uses neural networks to allow the average person to strip the clothing off from a woman’s pictures, making them appear realistically naked. (Mahdawi, 2019). Despite the original app being taken down, the rise of such a concept has only begun. As women are increasingly becoming victims to image-based sexual abuse, revenge-porn and blackmailing, through the process of having their faces digitally inserted onto pornographic photos and videos without their consent. (Henry, Powell & Flynn, 2018)
“Unless we start taking online misogyny seriously, we are going to face a future where women may not be able to exist online” — Arwa Mahdawi (The Guardian)
Focusing on one out of the many cases surrounding Deep Fake pornography is an Australian woman’s story of how her photos were taken from her social media pages and used to degrade her as a porn vengeance. The Australian criminal law did have laws on image-based sexual assault and federal telecommunication violations, but it remained uncertain if those provisions would extend to “fake porn” cases. (Henry, Powell & Flynn, 2018) Such an instance of not having any laws protect oneself is the majority worldwide with some exceptions. As Virginia and California are the first two US states to pass on laws that encourage non-consensual, Deep Fake pornography victims to sue for damages. (Ferrarro, 2019)
In 2019, bllionaire companies such as FB and Microsoft started taking initiative to detect and remove forms of DeepFake media. There was also emergence of movements such as the ‘Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’, that supports and guides victims towards what they can do if they are subjects of non-consensual porn. This adds some hope of more security and progress.
In conclusion, being aware of such emerging technologies, especially concerning the social networking medium, will allow us to stop the constant harm that is generated online.
It is very saddening to see that the ‘DeepNude’ creator was inspired by advertisements such as ‘X-ray’ glasses he saw while reading magazines from the 1960s and 1970s during his childhood. (Cole, 2019). Explicitly showing how such forms of gender discrimination and stereotyping women as sexual objects have become engrained within our society without even realising.
More information at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
Bonus: Malta
Up to this date, there is no information or recorded cases in the Maltese Islands, regarding the online degradation of women by use of Deep Fakes. Disregarding ‘Deep fakes’ altogether, revenge porn in Malta is punishable by fine or a 5year prison sentence. (Section 208E of the criminal code states that the crime) (“Man fined for circulating revenge porn featuring former partner — The Malta Independent”, 2018)
Author: Kimberley Camilleri
This blog is a project for a study unit: MCS 3953, University of Malta.
References
Chesney, R., & Citron, D. (2019). Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War The Coming Age of Post-Truth Geopolitics. Foreign Affairs; New York, 98(1), 147.
Shao, G. (2020). What ‘deepfakes’ are and how they may be dangerous. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/what-is-deepfake-and-how-it-might-be-dangerous.html
Mahdawi, A. (2019). An app using AI to ‘undress’ women offers a terrifying glimpse into the future | Arwa Mahdawi. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/29/deepnude-app-week-in-patriarchy-women
Toxic Twitter — Women’s Experiences of Violence and Abuse on Twitter. (2019). Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2018/03/online-violence-against-women-chapter-3/
Chivers, T. (2019). What do we do about deepfake video?. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/23/what-do-we-do-about-deepfake-video-ai-facebook
Cole, S. (2019). Deepnude: The Horrifying App Undressing Women. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/kzm59x/deepnude-app-creates-fake-nudes-of-any-woman
Henry, N., Powell, A., & Flynn, A. (2018). AI can now create fake porn, making revenge porn even more complicated. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://theconversation.com/ai-can-now-create-fake-porn-making-revenge-porn-even-more-complicated-92267
Ferrarro, M. (2019). Deepfake Legislation: A Nationwide Survey. Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/insights/client-alerts/20190925-deepfake-legislation-a-nationwide-survey
Man fined for circulating revenge porn featuring former partner — The Malta Independent. (2018). Retrieved 5 January 2021, from https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2018-11-14/local-news/Man-fined-for-circulating-revenge-porn-featuring-former-partner-6736199362
