Deep fake hypocrisy

General
21

I think the OP’s comparison of deepfakes v piracy to be appropriate, but maybe misses a significant facet of debate.

If someone makes their living doing porn, then non-approved deepfakes can take money out their pocket. If a person has a conservative mainstream brand or persona, then deepfake porn could have a negative impact on that brand–which translates to an economic loss. Either of those losses could result in a civil suit.

So I agree with the OP in this scenario when you compare the potential for legal action against the site (piracy v deepfakes). ES has controls in place to mitigate the risks of piracy posts (no torrents, no actual hosting) and I believe those controls are also applicable to deepfake posts.

However…

Many consider deepfakes immoral because of the impact they can have on the person depicted. If someone doesn’t want to been seen while nude or performing intimate acts, then deepfakes depicting those scenarios can trigger the same emotional reactions/trauma that the actual occurrence would have. Embarassment, stress, anxiety, panic, depression, PTSD, etc could result. Granted, some may be able to dissociate and mitigate the impact because it is fake, but others won’t.

So if nonconsensual “real” porn (revenge, voyeur, blackmail) can be considered immoral because of the trauma it can cause and nonconsensual deepfake porn can have the same impacts, then is there grounds for ES to label both as “unethical” and bannable?

Morality is subjective and that’s fine. I’m not trying to preach or convince you to boycott/cancel/soapbox or whatever. Frankly, IMHO, “immoral/unethical” content can be some of the most exciting porn. I’m just pointing out a “why”.

Cards on the table, I’m not really into deepfakes–I don’t fantasize about mainstream celebs or people I know IRL, so deepfakes don’t really scratch an itch for me.

3 Likes
22

It’s true that we have a problem.
But we don’t need to add more new problems.
If you want to, you can write your own script and have fun.

23

In any case, deepfakes are headed to the realm of the illegal/criminal activity, at least in the States if not elsewhere. If you’ve been paying attention to recent events, things like the New Jersey school case are prompting an increasing number of states to simply outright ban any form of non-consensual deepfake.

So, the debate about morality and immorality, at least for the site, appears to be moot. It’s about legal vs illegal.

24

This is already a non issue as we know how this is going to go from experience. Sites can only afford to create exclusionary rules because of the monopoly they still have from being early to market. As soon competition picks up the sites that restrict different things beyond the law will die out. This site included.