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. Whatâs your advice to ordinary people caught up in these situations?
Nina: Thatâs a hard one, because thereâs not that much recourse that we have. The first thing â familiarize yourself with local laws. Thereâs 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 âcreator,â youâre 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 wasnât available to me. It was a government portrait that they used.
But if your local laws donât forbid [the distribution of deepfake porn], unfortunately, youâre SOL. This is why Iâm hoping to push legislators to start taking this seriously.
These tools are ubiquitous, theyâre trained on womenâs bodies, and unless you want to be completely invisible from the internet, you are in a difficult position. It makes things harder when the âcreatorâ owns the images â for example, if you were on a date with him and he took a picture.
Natalia: Iâve 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, âAnd now Iâm going to send it to your grandma; your church-going grandma will see this and have a heart attack, and itâs on you, babe, because you rejected me.â Itâs such a familiar story â just with new technology. Are people only going to wake up when more of this stuff is made featuring men?
Nina: Iâve implored men to think about their daughters, their mothers, their wives when it comes to this issue â while we shouldnât 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 â men wonât care if it happens to them. Itâs cool for them to be seen engaging in sex acts, you know? Whereas for women itâs meant to be a demeaning experience, where it becomes, âlook at this whore.â 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 â there might be some outcry. Speaking of gender roles â THAT would be seen as humiliating.
Nina: I certainly wouldnât condone anybody being featured in deepfake porn without their consent. But hopefully posing that hypothetical to people will get them to understand whatâs 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 â leaving aside conservative communities where its existence could threaten someoneâs life, which is a terrifying problem we canât solve by simply not caring â that it could be framed differently, no? If we, as a society, reach a critical saturation point wherein this wonât impact your life and career?
Nina: It depends on context. Where you have well-known women featured in deepfake content thatâs about them being âdestroyed,â itâs less about the fact that theyâre âengaging in sex actsâ and more about whatâs being done to them and what theyâre being forced to do.
Itâs not just about seeing someone naked. Itâs 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. Thatâs the dangerous part. I think we have a long way to go.
Natalia: And thatâs the heart of the issue. None of this is really about sex at all. Itâs 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 âslutâ and that other men might rape her as the result of this content being created. Weâre taking something natural and normal, like sexual intercourse, and weâre turning it into a cudgel. Which is why Iâm so glad that you spoke out about it, because itâs 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 youâre able to â itâs so important. Itâs important to show that this is becoming systematic and commonplace, and to demand better of our lawmakers and men in general. And itâs exhausting, but we need to keep doing it.