Deepfake Porn Is Not “Just Porn” Because Consent Is Not Present

I must be living in the internet equivalent of a bunker because I had no idea deepfake porn was a thing. Obviously, if I ever stopped to think about it for two seconds, then yes, I would have realized it very much would be a thing, because I do know about Rule 34, which is: if it exists, there’s porn of it. I gotta be honest I spend most of my free time on the internet looking for real first-person retellings of ghost encounters, so this hasn’t really crossed my realm of experience until today.

Here’s the thing about deepfake porn: You absolutely must have the consent of all parties whose likeness you’re using if you’re going to do it. If some enterprising person with an OnlyFans wants to scale up their content process in order to meet demand and is upfront about what they’re doing, rad. Make that money, my friend.

I want to draw a distinction between deep fake porn, which uses a real person’s likeness, and AI porn, which is, in theory, entirely computer generated. However, as I’ve written about in the past, some AI algorithms use existing works of art in order to create new art, so read into that what you will.

Unfortunately, and I think you see where this is headed, this is not why we’re here today. We’re here because some gross Twitch streamer named Atrioc casually announced to the world that he was a disgusting creep when on one of his streams, he revealed deepfake, graphic pornographic images of female streamers that they obviously did not consent to be a part of.

One of the streamers, QTCinderella, vowed to pursue legal action against the website that created the pornographic images in her stream this week. Per Rogue Rocket:

“I promise you, with every part of my fucking soul, I am going to sue you,” QTCinderella, whose real name is Blaire, said through tears.

First off, hell yes. It’s disgusting they were ever created, or that she has to spend her own time and money pursuing action against the creator of the images that she didn’t consent to, but on a personal level, I hope she financially ruins them. Let me be clear, everyone owns their own body to do whatever with it as they please. Monetize it. Tattoo it. Train it for a marathon. Lay on about on the couch. Whatever you want, it’s yours. No one should be allowed to take your likeness and make it do anything. To digitize someone’s body, and put it in sexual situations without the owner of that body’s consent, is morally reprehensible.

QTCinderella, agrees. Per the above article:

Blaire said that it “should not be a part of [her] job” to constantly fight for this content to be removed from the Internet, nor should it be her job to deal with the onslaught of harassment that comes with the dissemination of these fabricated images. 

“If you are able to look at women who are not selling themselves or benefiting off of being seen sexually — they’re not benefiting, they’re not selling it, they’re not platforming it themselves — if you are able to look at that, you are the problem,” she said. “You see women as an object.” 

I don’t want to get into the sniveling BS excuses Atrioc is giving because would he be giving them if he didn’t get caught? Frankly, I don’t know or care. The fact that he was so careless with such disgusting and predatory images in the first place tells me everything anyone needs to know about him. If you need a secondary reason why you shouldn’t care, just know he hauled his wife out to be in the background of his apology video.

If you think people are being kind and supportive to QTCinderella, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you:

Yes, that’s right. The first instinct of some people when faced with the anguish of QTCinderella at having her likeness used in pornographic images was not to offer sympathy or support, but to not only seek out said images but share them with other people. Some of you just weren’t raised right.

This whole situation is toxic and horrible. As a result, YouTuber HasanAbi, who has 1.7 million subscribers has created a 15-minute YouTube video to explain to people within the community why it’s bad to create deepfake images of other people naked. This is where we’re at. Someone respected in the gamer community has to break it down to the audience like they’re three, and explain basic common decency.

It’s also not lost on me that perhaps the male voice in this argument will be listened to more authoritatively than the female voices who have been shouting from the rooftops for far longer, especially given that the female voices are first-person accounts. That is exhausting. The whole situation is disgusting and exhausting.

Per Vice, the deepfake creator at the center of this has taken down their content:

At the time of writing, the deepfake creator’s page on the site Ewing used has been scrubbed of deepfakes and now hosts a long apology to streamers that describes the non-consensual fake sex tapes as “immoral.” 

“To be quite honest if I wanted to continue this, what I got was the best advertisement I could ever ask for but after seeing the situation of that couple apologizing and a few streamers’ reactions who thought [I] ‘did not care’, I feel like the total piece of shit I am,” they wrote. “The best course of action I have understood is to just wipe my part off the internet and help decrease the number of future videos of those involved. You will not see me pop up again.”

Too little too late. Sic your lawyers on them, QTCinderella.

(featured image: Twitch)