In what is being described as a “hugely significant moment” in the fight against deepfake technology abuse, the UK has banned several websites. Two of these websites include the two largest distributors of deepfake smut.
We will not be naming either site as they are involved in creating and distributing extremely harmful and, frequently, malicious media. These websites had been raking in ridiculous numbers with one having 12 million global visitors last month, while the other had 4 million visitors.
Last week the UK proposed a law to strengthen punishments on deepfakes made to “cause alarm, humiliation, or distress to the victim.” with up to unlimited fines on the perpetrators.
While no official announcement has been made by either the UK government nor the websites, the restriction appears to be geographical in nature. You can still access these sites from countries such as the USA unfortunately.
There has been an alarming rise in the usage of deepfake technology to "strip" people and then circulate these images online for whatever reason. Some of these reasons include the generation of clicks, or to gain a bit of clout online. Other reasons are far more malicious and aim to tarnish an individual or celebrity's image. Regardless of the reason, the usage of the technology for smut-type content is deeply disturbing.
The rise and exponential growth and advancement of AI and image generation technologies have only made matters worse. It has gotten increasingly difficult to tell apart deepfake videos from the real thing and the breach of privacy is downright disturbing. The technology is becoming a threat to everyone.
In fact, Facebook had to deal with a massive issue where teenage images of a celebrity were being used for deepfake ads to generate clicks. Their response to the rise of deepfake technology has been lukewarm to say the least. However, they've managed to improve their detection technology a fair deal.
Luckily, the UK has decided to be sensible and taken much more swift and decisive action against these websites. Hopefully, other countries and major social media platforms will soon follow. Laws have been strengthened recently following the Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds deepfake controversies.