THE DIGITAL DECEPTION

The harsh truth of deepfake pornography against women.

- Santosh Pattanaik

Deepfakes are a relatively new way of violence, harnessing artificial intelligence to exploit, humiliate, and harass through the ages-old tactic of stripping women of their sexual autonomy. While anyone can be the target of image-based sexual abuse, research suggests women are more likely to be victimised, whereas men are more commonly the perpetrators.

According to AI firm Sensity, 96 per cent of deepfakes are pornographic and used to target women, with the number of deepfake porn clips doubling every six months. Deepfake abuse fortifies issues related to gender disparities and preserves discriminatory practices that erode women's sovereignty and human rights.

While deepfake technology has been put to a wide range of benign uses, the technology has also been deployed to abuse, debase, and humiliate women victimised by image-based sexual abuse. The term deepfake is coined from a combination of the words of "deep learning" and "fake".

A deepfake is a video, image, or sound that is created using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Essentially, a deepfake allows the creator to make the person in the media they are creating do whatever they want. Faces of the victims are inserted into violent, graphic porn which is so realistic that it can be difficult to tell that it has been computer-generated.

In a culture that is rife with misinformation and disinformation, it can be easy for people to be duped into believing they are reading or seeing something that has no base in reality. Deepfake videos have added to this confusion, sometimes presenting content that is meant to deceive the viewer or to drastically misrepresent the person in the video.