Laws About Deepfakes Can’t Leave Sex Workers Behind

There would be no deepfakes without sex workers—and specifically, without a disregard for their labor, boundaries, and bodily autonomy. 

In the seven years since I first wrote about deepfakes, before there was even a word for the AI-powered face-swapping technology, people have finally started to realize that sexually explicit deepfakes meant to harass, blackmail, threaten, or simply disregard women’s consent have always been the primary use of the technology—not spreading disinformation or endangering democracy. This has always been the case, but now, when deepfakes capture national attention, it’s typically because a big-name celebrity has been the target (most recently, Taylor Swift). And even when it’s a lesser-known person whose face is transposed onto a nude or sexualized body, the narrative centers on that person as the sole victim. 

But there are at least two people in every deepfake: the one being impersonated, whose face is being used, and the one whose face has been erased entirely, plastered over by an algorithm, leaving their body exposed. The latter is almost always a porn worker, someone who makes their living with that body and carefully chooses who to share it with in their work.

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