DeepFake Porn Explosions Can Make Us Intrinsically Larmed Streamers Out Of Their Censorship
Deepfakes are powerful tools for spreading disinformation, but they can also have a long-term effect on people’s perceptions. It’s not enough that some viewers can tell the media is fake. There are consequences and they are true. The harassment of victims with explicit video and images that are in their semblance can be likened to assault. These videos or images can make people traumatizing. Friends and family don’t always have the online literacy to understand that the media has been falsified. Streamers watch as their personal and professional brands are polluted through a proliferation of explicit content created without their knowledge or consent.
These conversations don’t get the point. They put aside legitimate harms in favor of bad-faith arguments. The impact of these images on streamers and their career is diminished by the way they are centered. “We are hurting,” Blaire says. Every single woman involved in this is hurt.
Twitch does tend to clamp down on accounts sharing sexual images, even when they accidentally make their way into a livestream. Atrioc was banned from using a screen for showing a flaccid penis, and Pokimane received a warning after opening PornHub in a browser tab. But Twitch’s previous stance on deepfakes was extremely limited: it only mentioned them in the context of “sharing negative doctored or artistic content to abuse or degrade another person.”
Even a brief unintentional glimpse at those sorts of images “will be removed and will result in an enforcement,” the company writes. If you create, promote, or share deep fake porn that can lead to a suspension for the first offense.
QTCinderella isn’t going to sue the guy that made Atrioc into a real, fake porn site
The company didn’t respond immediately to a fact-check request, but the new policy makes it clear that at least some action would be taken.
Twitch did previously prohibit “broadcasting or uploading content that contains depictions of real nudity” and threatened instabans for “sexual violence and exploitation,” however.
Originally, QTCinderella vowed to sue the deepfake porn site that Atrioc brought to the world’s attention, but she’s since told NBC News that she’s given up: “Every single lawyer I’ve talked to essentially have come to the conclusion that we don’t have a case; there’s no way to sue the guy.”