Just a couple of weeks ago, we reported that celebrity AI porn had become a new fad amongst tech geeks. The software was first created by a Reddit user called "deepfakes", who created an algorithm to switch the faces of porn stars with those of celebrities. Another, more user-friendly app, called "FakeApp", was also created.
Reddit users even created a message thread to teaching each other exactly how to manipulate the faces in the original content, but Pornhub won't have any of it. Last Tuesday, the popular adult site told Motherboard that they saw “deepfakes” as an act of nonconsensual porn and that they would be removing any such videos uploaded to the site.
"Nonconsensual content directly violates our TOS [terms of service] and consists of content such as revenge porn, deepfakes or anything published without a person’s consent or permission,” a Pornhub spokesperson told Motherboard.
Pornhub’s vice president, Corey Price, told Mashable that users of the site have already started flagging up deepfake porn videos and advised anyone else who came across them to report them to the site.
"We encourage anyone who encounters this issue to visit our content removal page so they can officially make a request," he said.
In the face of the technology's growing popularity, Reddit has removed the thread discussing how to create deepfake porn videos using the algorithm. "As of February 7, 2018, we have made two updates to our site-wide policy regarding involuntary pornography and sexual or suggestive content involving minors," Reddit told Motherboard.
Although on the surface it's just a face swap, the material and intent behind deepfakes can be damaging, especially when consent hasn’t been given by any of the celebrities whose faces have been used.
Twitter has also recently banned deepfake porn videos as they violate its intimate media policy. "We will suspend any account we identify as the original poster of intimate media that has been produced or distributed without the subject's consent," a spokesperson told Motherboard.
So far, PornHub, Twitter, and Reddit are the only sites to have spoken up about the issue of deepfake porn.
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