I was in deepfake porn, fans think it’s real — it can happen to anyone
Now, this is really faked up.
Sweet Anita, a 32-year-old British social media star with more than 1.9 million Twitch followers, is deeply freaked out after discovering that her face has been digitally superimposed into deepfake pornography clips.
“I have never made a single drop of sexual content in my life, but now they just assume that I have and [that] I must want this,” Sweet Anita, who reportedly chose to withhold her real name, lamented to the Sun. “You could deepfake anyone. Anyone from any walk of life could be targeted by this, and it feels like people don’t give a s – – t.”
For deepfakes, creators use artificial intelligence and machine learning software to replace the likeness of one person with another in videos and other digital media.
High-powered women such as Emma Watson, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson and Michelle Obama have all been targeted in X-rated deepfake films. And while the nonconsensual use of one’s image in pornography could result in damaging outcomes, in the US, laws prohibiting deepfakes have only been established in Texas, Virginia and California.
Anita, from East Anglia, England — where a forthcoming amendment to the UK’s Online Safety Bill will reportedly criminalize deepfakes — learned that her likeness was being featured in internet porn sans her consent in January. The troubling discovery came when fellow Twitch personality Brandon Ewing, 31, known virtually as Atrioc, shared a link to the deepfake video site during a livestreaming event.
Ewing later issued an apology for sharing the link to Anita, tearfully atoning for his “gross” and “embarrassing” conduct.
But after watching his cyber mea culpa and Googling her own name, Anita was “horrified” to find that multiple pornographic deepfakes using her image had been published online.
“It’s not easy to differentiate [a deepfake] from reality,” Anita said. “If people see this video in 10 or 20 years’ time, no one will know whether I was a sex worker or [if] this was a deepfake.”
The victimized Twitch gamer continued, “It could potentially get you fired from jobs in the future if people think you’ve done sex work. It affects your security [and] how people treat you. You are stigmatized.”
And as for Ewing’s weepy “I’m sorry” post, Anita said: “I don’t really accept the apology because it’s too little, too late.”
“It looks like damage control from someone facing a pending lawsuit rather than actual remorse,” she continued.
Last month, Google searches for “deepfake porn” skyrocketed 1,000% in the UK, per Scams.info. And in the weeks since, Sweet Anita — as well as other social media personalities, including Los Angeles-based Twitch star QTCinderella, 28, née Blaire — discovered she’d been targeted in deepfake porn, and searches for “how to make a deepfake” rose 120%.
Searches for “are deepfakes illegal” were also said to have soared a staggering 5,000%.
And Anita fears the mass circulation of her misused image will have lasting ramifications.
“This was nonconsensual and the impacts are permanent,” she said. “This will impact my life in a similar way to revenge porn, so I’m just frustrated, tired and numb.”
Unfortunately, she’s no stranger to being wrongfully highlighted in raunchy digital content.
“Before deepfakes, people had been photoshopping still images to have my face on porn,” said Anita.
“People have amassed huge collections of clips of me getting up and walking away from the camera during livestreams to look at my body, even though it’s clothed,” she continued.
“There are people who make whole Reddit forums just to roleplay as me,” the brunette mourned, “where they are like, ‘I’m going to pretend to be Sweet Anita, do you want to do spicy DMs with me?’ ”
She went on to claim that there are online communities comprised of “thousands” of members who are joined by their shared desire to unjustly sexualize her and other women streamers.
“It’s one extra thing in an endless and exhaustive list that female content creators have to take on that [is] traumatizing,” Anita said. In addition to the cost of therapy to help cope with the trauma, it costs “thousands” to take legal action, confront the perpetrators and get the material taken down.
She also noted a perceived “lack of empathy” from online gamers, who she says often “blame women” for the distasteful deepfake content.
“They don’t seem to think through what’s happened to us is a reality. They just see it as women complaining about being objects of sexual fantasies,” said Anita.
“It’s really, really difficult,” she added, “but the greatest challenge so far has been trying to explain to people the real genuine impact on people’s lives and how permanent it is, too.”
In early February, a despondent and “violated” QTCinderella blasted deepfake creeps for using her image in their NSFW production.
“I’m so exhausted and I think you guys need to know what pain looks like because this is it,” she sobbed. “This is what it looks like to feel violated. This is what it feels like to be taken advantage of, this is what it looks like to see yourself naked against your will being spread all over the internet. This is what it looks like.”
She then scolded the entire online community, including Atrioc, for the embarrassment and harassment.
“F – – k the f – – king internet. F – – k Atrioc for showing it to thousands of people,” she barked. “F – – k the people DMing me pictures of myself from that website. F – – k you all!“
