After Megan Thee Stallion Was Targeted by Sexually-Explicit Deepfakes, Women’s Group Renews Demand that Google Remove “MrDeepFake” from Search Results
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, June 12, 2024
CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com
After Megan Thee Stallion Was Targeted by Sexually-Explicit Deepfakes, Women’s Group Renews Demand that Google Remove “MrDeepFake” from Search Results
Last week, a sexually explicit deepfake video of Megan Thee Stallion, which was made without her consent, circulated on X, garnering tens of thousands of views and being reposted by multiple accounts. While the video was ultimately removed, Megan Thee Stallion is just the latest celebrity to be targeted by this type of online harassment – highlighting just how pervasive this form of abuse has become.
Reacting to the news, UltraViolet, the nation’s largest online feminist community, reiterated its call for Google, which is responsible for more than a third of all traffic to deepfake pornography platforms on the internet, to immediately act, and remove MrDeepFake, one of the largest platforms for non-consensual sexually-explicit images from its search results.
Nicole Regalado, Vice President of Campaigns at UltraViolet, explained:
“Women have always had to suffer from sexually explicit harassment and non-consensual exploitation – but deepfake technology has radically changed and supercharged this abuse into a national epidemic.
“Sadly, the harassment of Megan Thee Stallion mirrors the experiences of tens of thousands of women across the country – who have had sexually explicit deepfake videos made without their consent.
“Platforms like Google supercharge the spread of non-consensual sexual deepfakes that are used to humiliate girls and women, especially women in power.
“We know that deepfake-created images, which often involve superimposing an individual’s face onto explicit content without their consent, not only violate privacy by undermining an individual’s right to control their image, but also normalize sexual exploitation and reinforce harmful stereotypes about gender, sexuality, and consent. By reducing people to objects for sexual gratification, non-consensual sexual deepfakes perpetuate a culture of exploitation and dehumanization while eroding the integrity of digital media and trust in online information sources.”
More than 10,000 people have signed onto an UltraViolet petition urging Google and other major platforms to act. UltraViolet also endorses the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act) legislation that would hold accountable those responsible for the proliferation of nonconsensual, sexually explicit “deepfake” images and videos.
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