A deep fake is a video, image or audio digitally manipulated in such a way that it looks authentic, but is actually fake. This technique uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate content that looks real, often creating images of people who have never existed or modifying the face and voice of real people.
The term originated from the combination of “deep learning” which means deep learning (an artificial intelligence technique) and “fake” which in Spanish translates to false. These can be used for entertainment purposes, but they can also be used to spread disinformation or manipulate public opinion. For this reason, deep fakes have raised concerns in terms of security and privacy.
Artificial intelligence applications make it easier to produce and harder to identify its falsity, while its regulation and control lags behind the development of these technologies.
All of this technology is sometimes being used to defame, harass and threaten women and other historically excluded groups, including LGBTQ+ people. And while photo hacking is not new, what it is, is the alteration of videos that can be used for “revenge porn” or “revenge porn”, in which images of women are mostly used without their consent.
Pornography without consent
It was in December 2017 that Motherboard journalist Samantha Cole discovered that a Reddit user with the screen name “deepfakes” was using techniques developed and open source by AI researchers to turn female celebrity faces into porn videos.
According to Sensity AI, a research company that tracks fake hyper-realistic videos on the internet, between 90% and 95% of them are pornography without consent and 9 out of 10 of these concern women. “This is a problem of sexist violence,” say from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the founder of EndTAB, a non-profit organization for education in technological uses, Adam Dodge. In addition, the Sensity AI report shows that in 2020 a Telegram chatbot had stripped at least 100,000 women naked without their consent.
For its part, a study promoted by the European Parliament to address “deepfakes” in European politics points out that applications are designed with gender biases.
Currently, the company says that the numbers double every six months and are more than 85 thousand videos.
Regulation in Chile
In November 2020, UN Women Chile, together with the consultancies of NGOs Amaranta and Fundación Datos Protegidas, carried out the survey Digital Violence: Virtual Experiences of Girls and Adolescents in Chile.
This report showed worrying figures on violence on the internet, where 22% of girls and adolescents between 12 and 14 years old said they had suffered digital violence, while 41% of adolescents between 15 and 18 years old said the same. On the other hand, the children and adolescents consulted showed 13% and 24%, respectively.
The survey also shows some consequences of digital violence, not only for mental health, but also from NGO Amaranta they noticed the increase in migraines, attempted self-harm, feeling of intimidation and / or constant stalking.
“A fear of going out in public and being recognized may also be born which leads them to have symptoms of anxiety, in other cases a fear of social networks and the feeling of panic may arise that they continue to transgress their identity, the fear can be a latent and constant emotion, since if they used their image they may think that more data will be stolen.” adds the psychologist of the Autonomous University of Chile, Constanza Figueroa “It is a fairly complex issue and although there are similar or more common symptoms, the degree of affectation will depend on the capacities, skills and / or resources of each victim ” Ended.
And although there are certain countries that have a regulation regarding the subject, such as China that became the first country to make a regulation in relation to deep fakes and digital violence. Not to eliminate them, but to control their harmful use and prevent the spread of false or misleading news.
In Chile this is still under development.”There are no laws that protect anyone who is a victim of deep fakes, but they could enter in the case of libel or slander“, say from the Association of Feminist Lawyers (Abofem).
However, the technology is difficult to regulate, in part because there are many legitimate uses of deep fakes in entertainment, satire and whistleblower protection.
In Chile, the bills (the digital violence and the right of women to a life free of violence), which are being discussed in Congress to typify situations and behaviors or digital gender violence, will be key, so that procedures are established to make safe complaints and so that cases are investigated until the corresponding penalties are established for the new crimes. which are expected to be typified.
As technology is constantly developing and deep fakes are still something relatively new, one of the instances that could contribute to its regulation is the inclusion of digital rights in the next constitutional convention to structure a new Magna Carta.
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