New research shows an alarming surge in the creation of so-called deepfake videos, with the number online almost doubling in the last nine months. There is also evidence that production of these videos is becoming a lucrative business.
And while much of the concern about deepfakes has centred on their use for political purposes, the evidence is that pornography accounts for the overwhelming majority of the clips. The research comes from cyber-security company Deeptrace. Its researchers found 14,698 deepfake videos online, compared with 7,964 in December 2018. They said 96% were pornographic in nature, often with a computer-generated face of a celebrity replacing that of the original adult actor in a scene of sexual activity. While many of the subjects featured were American and British actresses, the researchers found that South Korean K-Pop singers were also commonly inserted into fake videos, highlighting that this is a global phenomenon. The report does highlight the potential for the use of deepfake technology to be used in political campaigns. But in the two cases it highlights - in Gabon and Malaysia - the allegations that faked videos had been used turned out to be incorrect. What seems clear, though, is that the real danger at the moment is the use of the technology in revenge porn and cyber-bullying. Henry Ajder, head of research analysis at Deeptrace, says too much of the discussion of deepfakes misses the mark. "The debate is all about the politics or fraud and a near-term threat, but a lot of people are forgetting that deepfake pornography is a very real, very current phenomenon that is harming a lot of women," he explains.
