US teenager sues ClothOff developer over non-consensual deepfake nude images
A 17-year-old girl from New Jersey filed a lawsuit against ClothOff, an AI image generation tool, after a high school classmate used it to create deepfake nude images of her based on a clothed photo she had posted at age 14. The plaintiff alleges she lives in continuous fear of the images spreading online and that her photos may have been used to train the AI model.
What happened
A 17-year-old girl from New Jersey filed a lawsuit against ClothOff developer AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 and Telegram. The plaintiff alleges that a high school classmate used ClothOff to generate deepfake nude images based on a clothed photo she posted to Instagram when she was 14 years old.
According to the complaint, the classmate accessed ClothOff through Telegram's automated bot system. The plaintiff also alleges that several male classmates shared multiple deepfake nude images of female students in a group chat.
Reported impact
The plaintiff states she lives in 'endless fear' that the deepfake images will spread online. She expresses concern that her photos and those of other girls may have been used to train ClothOff's AI model.
Index analysis
The plaintiff's lawyers at Yale Law School identified that ClothOff is registered in the British Virgin Islands but is operated by people residing in Belarus. They expect that if operators do not appear in court or respond to the lawsuit, the court may block the software's use in the United States.
Telegram stated that non-consensual sexual imagery and tools to create it are explicitly prohibited in its terms of service and are deleted when found. The company said it regularly removes bots designed to generate non-consensual sexual imagery, including those using ClothOff.
Governance controls
The San Francisco District Attorney filed lawsuits against 16 major deepfake-nude sites in the previous year, including ClothOff, resulting in approximately 10 closures. The District Attorney stated litigation against ClothOff continues.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.