Deepfake Porn Sites Used Her Image. She’s Fighting Back.

Deepfakes — A.I.-generated imagery that often uses real people’s faces and identities — have proliferated online. A recent study found that 98 percent of deepfake videos online are pornographic, and 99 percent of those target women and girls. The activist and survivor Breeze Liu’s image was used by multiple sites. In this audio essay, she tells her story to the columnist Nicholas Kristof. They argue that search engines such as Google and Bing have the power to combat the scourge of deepfake pornography. “Google can be socially responsible when it wants to be,” Kristof explains. “But in this case, it just seems to be completely indifferent to companies that go out of their way to humiliate women and girls and make money off it.”

(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)

Credit…Illustration by The New York Times; photograph by Taylor Johnson for The New York Times

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Kaari Pitkin and Alison Bruzek. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud. Original music by Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker and Isaac Jones. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski.

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