Deepfake porn and what to do about it

A conversation with Nina Jankowicz

Nina Jankowicz is a disinformation expert and also, luckily, my friend. When I learned that Nina has been the subject of deepfake pornography online, I wanted to reach out and talk about how we can better deal with this phenomenon.

Natalia: As someone who helps people manage their digital footprints, I know a woman whose ex-boyfriend created deepfake pornography of her in order to get revenge for her breaking up with him [Note: the victim asked me to make her story public without going into too many details]. We often think of famous people having to endure this, but the technology to do this is easily available and anyone can do it. What’s your advice to ordinary people caught up in these situations?

Nina: That’s a hard one, because there’s not that much recourse that we have. The first thing — familiarize yourself with local laws. There’s a handful of states that criminalize/prohibit the distribution of deepfake porn, understanding if your state is one of them is a good thing. If you know the “creator,” you’re in a better position, because you can certainly get your lawyer to write a cease and desist letter; I think you can claim copyright infringement if you own the image that was used to create [this].

In my case, that wasn’t available to me. It was a government portrait that they used.

But if your local laws don’t forbid [the distribution of deepfake porn], unfortunately, you’re SOL. This is why I’m hoping to push legislators to start taking this seriously.

These tools are ubiquitous, they’re trained on women’s bodies, and unless you want to be completely invisible from the internet, you are in a difficult position. It makes things harder when the “creator” owns the images — for example, if you were on a date with him and he took a picture.

Natalia: I’ve seen this content now being used as a blackmail tool. In the particular case I dealt with, this man had created this deepfake footage and then said, “And now I’m going to send it to your grandma; your church-going grandma will see this and have a heart attack, and it’s on you, babe, because you rejected me.” It’s such a familiar story — just with new technology. Are people only going to wake up when more of this stuff is made featuring men?

Nina: I’ve implored men to think about their daughters, their mothers, their wives when it comes to this issue — while we shouldn’t have to do that to begin with to have our basic human rights respected, I think that might be the only way.

But the other thing to think about — men won’t care if it happens to them. It’s cool for them to be seen engaging in sex acts, you know? Whereas for women it’s meant to be a demeaning experience, where it becomes, “look at this whore.” It gets back to very different attitudes toward sex and gender roles we have in society, which are really problematic.

Natalia: My theory is that if there is deepfake porn featuring straight male legislators in gay sex scenes — there might be some outcry. Speaking of gender roles — THAT would be seen as humiliating.

Nina: I certainly wouldn’t condone anybody being featured in deepfake porn without their consent. But hopefully posing that hypothetical to people will get them to understand what’s at stake here.

Natalia: My other theory is the white noise theory. I think we are slowly reaching a tipping point wherein anybody can be featured in all kinds of sexual content and it becomes a non-issue. Sexualized imagery is so commonplace — leaving aside conservative communities where its existence could threaten someone’s life, which is a terrifying problem we can’t solve by simply not caring — that it could be framed differently, no? If we, as a society, reach a critical saturation point wherein this won’t impact your life and career?

Nina: It depends on context. Where you have well-known women featured in deepfake content that’s about them being “destroyed,” it’s less about the fact that they’re “engaging in sex acts” and more about what’s being done to them and what they’re being forced to do.

It’s not just about seeing someone naked. It’s about a person being denigrated. Even if everyone had deepfake porn of them made tomorrow, the grossest stuff will be reserved for people who are most maligned in our society. That’s the dangerous part. I think we have a long way to go.

Natalia: And that’s the heart of the issue. None of this is really about sex at all. It’s about terrorizing someone. With regard to my client, the man who made the deepfake footage of her wanted her to feel like she is now a “slut” and that other men might rape her as the result of this content being created. We’re taking something natural and normal, like sexual intercourse, and we’re turning it into a cudgel. Which is why I’m so glad that you spoke out about it, because it’s impossible to speak out for so many women.

Nina: Even though it is impossible for so many women to speak out when this happens, but if you’re able to — it’s so important. It’s important to show that this is becoming systematic and commonplace, and to demand better of our lawmakers and men in general. And it’s exhausting, but we need to keep doing it.