With the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes, or AI-doctored images, videos, and audio that appear like the real person is saying or doing something, it’s hardly surprising that non-consensual deepfake porn is rampant, but a major deepfake porn site has just closed.
As it happens, MrDeepFakes, a notorious non-consensual deepfake porn library that had thousands of daily visits has now been replaced with a message announcing it was shutting down and not coming back due to “terminated service” by its “critical service provider.”
Indeed, the landing page for the popular website, which was still showing as fully up and running as of May 2 per the Wayback Machine Internet archive, is no longer there and now features an announcement titled ‘Shutdown Notice,’ stating that the loss of its service provider has led to irretrievable loss of data:
“A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation. We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake. This domain will eventually expire and we are not responsible for future use. This message will be removed around one week.”
Why the biggest deepfake porn site is down
Although the website administrator offered no other details as to the reasoning behind the service termination by the provider, it may have something to do with the controversy surrounding the website that involved the use of individuals’ likenesses to show them as purportedly performing sexual acts.
According to a paper by researchers from Stanford University and University of California San Diego, there are many reasons why attackers decide to create and utilize sexual deepfakes against someone: “to seek sexual gratification, to harass and humiliate targets, or to exert power over an intimate partner.”
In fact, the study states that 98% of online deepfakes are sexual in nature (some violent), and that women actors and musicians make up 88% of posted videos, but also that MrDeepFakes features hundreds of individuals with little to no online or public presence, despite claiming to stick to celebrities only.
Regardless of the reason, it often leaves those targeted with numerous consequences, including to their emotional, psychological, physical, reputational, and financial well-being, and there’s still little enforcement surrounding public deepfake postings, even when they include minors.
Meanwhile, deepfakes are becoming increasingly difficult to determine even by state-of-the-art detectors, as many of them are now featuring a realistic heartbeat, the lack of which used to be a telltale sign that it wasn’t a real person you were seeing in the video, but an artificially manipulated deepfake.
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