Gamer Sweet Anita complained: I was used for fake porn (SweetAnita)
"Sweet Anita", a 32-year-old British network star with more than 1.9 million followers on the streaming platform Twitch, was left horrified after discovering that her face had been digitally inserted into "deep-fake" pornography.
"I've never created a single bit of sexual content in my life, but now people just assume I've done it and that I want it," lamented "Sweet Anita," who chose to hide her real name, to the British SUN, "You can fake anyone like that . Anyone from any walk of life can be a target for this - and it feels like people just don't care."
To make a deep-fix video, creators use artificial intelligence and learning software to replace one person's face with another in videos and other digital media.
Famous women like Emma Watson, Gal Gadot, Scarlett Johansson and Michelle Obama have all appeared in deepfake movies of a sexual nature - and although the non-consensual use of a person's image in pornography can lead to serious consequences, in the US there are laws prohibiting deepfake fakes were set only in Texas, Virginia and California.
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"Deep fake porn ruined my life"
Anita, from East Anglia in England - where, according to reports, an amendment to the online safety bill that would criminalize such forgeries is expected - discovered that her image was shown in online porn without her consent last January.
The disturbing discovery came when 31-year-old Brandon Ewing, known as "Etriok", shared a link to the fake video site during his live online show.
Ewing later issued an apology for sharing the link to Anita's "porn" and tearfully apologized for his "rude" and "embarrassing" conduct.
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However, after watching his show and Googling her name, Anita was "horrified" to discover that a large number of pornographic forgeries using her photos had been published online.
"It's not easy to tell the difference between a deepfake and reality," said Anita.
"If people see this video in 10 or 20 years, no one will know if I was a sex worker or if it was a fake."
She added: "This kind of thing could lead to your dismissal from jobs in the future, if people think you worked in the porn industry. It affects your confidence and how people treat you. You have a stigma."
"It affects your confidence and how people treat you. You have a stigma." (Photo: screenshot, YouTube/SweetAnita)
Ewing, better known as Atrioc, cried when he apologized for sharing the link (Photo: screenshot, YouTube/Atrioc)
As for Ewing's whiny post, Anita said: "I don't really accept his apology because it's too little, too late. It seems like damage control from someone facing a lawsuit - rather than actual remorse."
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Anita fears that the mass distribution of her videos will have lasting consequences: "It was non-consensual and the effects are forever," she said.
"It will affect my life in a similar way to revenge porn, so I'm just frustrated, tired and numb."
She said that there are online communities made up of thousands of members who share a common desire to become a network star and a porn actress.
"It's one more thing in an endless and exhaustive list that female content creators have to take on and it's traumatic," said Anita.
In addition to the cost of treatment to help deal with the trauma, it costs "thousands of dollars" to take legal action, confront the perpetrators and take the content off the web.
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"It was non-consensual and the effects are permanent" (Photo: screenshot, YouTube/SweetAnita)
She also noted a "lack of empathy" towards her from male gamers, who she says often "blame women" for the fake content posted.
"They don't seem to think that what happened to us is real. They just see us as women complaining about being the object of sexual fantasies," said Anita, "It's really, really hard, but the biggest challenge so far has been trying to explain to people the real impact of things like this about people's lives and how permanent it is."
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