Indian journalist Rana Ayyub attacked with deepfake porn video

Indian female Muslim investigative journalist, writer and author Rana Ayyub was subjected to an apparently politically-motivated, vicious AI-powered sex attack, causing serious mental distress and raising accountability and other concerns about the misuse of AI technologies. What happened A deepfake video of Ayyub's face morphed onto the body of an actor appearing to show her engaging in explicit sex acts appeared online, prompt ing a whirlwind of harassment, abuse and death threats against the journalist. To make matters worse, her telephone number was revealed the following day in a tweet showing a screenshot of the video, resulting in thousands of unpleasant and intimidating calls. Ayyub ended up in hospital with heart palpitations and anxiety. When she recovered, Ayyub submitted a criminal complaint with Delhi police, who initially refused to file it and made no further contact with her for six months. The case was closed in August 2020. The harassment extended offline: her bank accounts were frozen in 2021 amid dubious tax evasion allegations, and she faced legal charges for sharing a video exposing anti-Muslim violence. Ayyub says she has not had a regular job since the deepfake attack, relying solely on the proceeds from her book sales, and has faced real challenges in getting her work published, with media companies and publishers refusing to release her findings due to political pressure or fear of repercussions. Why it happened The attacks on Ayyub appear to have been circulated by India's Hindhu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and formed part of a broader effort to discredit and silence her. Ayyub is a prominent critic of the Modi administration's policies. What it means The incident demonstrates the vulnerability of high-profile women to online abuse and harassment using deepfake technology. It also exposes the inadequacies of existing legislation on the moderayion of social media platforms in India. Deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of ' deep learning ' and 'fake' [ 1 ] ) are images, videos, or audio that have been edited or generated using artificial intelligence , AI-based tools or AV editing software. Source: Wikipedia 🔗 System 🤖 Unknown Operator: Developer: Country: India Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts Purpose: Harrass/intimidate/shame Technology: Deepfake; Machine learning Issue: Accountability; Bias/discrimination; Mis/disinformation; Privacy; Safety

Date it happened

2018-04-01

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