Deepfake pornography has become a major concern as it is easily accessible on popular search engines like Google and Bing, according NBC News. This type of pornography involves grafting one’s face onto a real pornographic scene, and deepfake pornographic images and links are prevalent in search results, especially of female celebrities, when the safe-search tool is disabled.
Many legal experts, advocates and victims consider nonconsensual deepfake porn a crisis and have asked tech platforms to intervene, particularly in instances where the law and law enforcement have failed to take action against offenders. States have enacted or introduced laws to govern the use of deepfakes in elections, but nonconsensual deepfake porn continues to spread and victimize people.
Google and Bing are primary sources of deepfake pornography, with the search engines displaying nonconsensual deepfake images and links to videos prominently in their search results for searches involving 36 popular female celebrities. Nearly all the searches returned top results that included links to a popular deepfake website or a rival, and the popular deepfake website has cultivated a market for nonconsensual deepfake porn of celebrities and private individuals.
Additionally, a search for “fake nudes” on Google and Bing returned links to various apps and programs that create or view nonconsensual deepfake porn. Specifically, Googling the term returned six articles about high school boys who allegedly used the technology to create and distribute deepfake nude pictures of their female classmates. While Bing’s AI chatbot, Copilot, acknowledges that the use of deepfakes is unethical and can have serious consequences, the search engine still provides users with easy access to dozens of links and examples of nonconsensual deepfake porn.
In the face of this alarming situation, legal experts and advocates have urged tech platforms to take responsibility and action to combat nonconsensual deepfake porn. The lack of action on the part of search engines has led advocates to demand that tech platforms do more to protect against nonconsensual deepfake pornography.
