Woman campaigning for law against deepfake porn after friend created images
A woman's best friend used AI to create deepfake pornographic videos from her social media photos and shared them online starting in 2019. The perpetrator was convicted of sending grossly offensive messages in 2021 but not charged for creating the deepfakes, prompting the victim to campaign for legal reform.
What happened
Starting in 2019, Jodie's social media photos appeared on dating websites and Twitter with messages soliciting sex, then on websites where ex-partners' images are posted to encourage trolling. In March 2021, she discovered AI-manipulated pornographic videos made from her innocent social media photos on a non-mainstream porn website.
Jodie identified her best friend Alex Woolf as the perpetrator after recognising a unique photograph he alone possessed. Woolf had taken her clothed social media photos and used AI to transform them into pornographic content; nine or ten such images and videos were created, including one depicting her head on a schoolgirl's body in a student-teacher scenario.
Reported impact
Jodie stated the deepfaked images made her feel suicidal and destroyed her ability to trust others. She described the experience as 'the ultimate violation' and said 'the whole world collapsed around me'.
Jodie is campaigning to make the creation and distribution of deepfake pornography illegal in the UK, as Woolf was not charged specifically for soliciting the deepfaked sexual images.
Index analysis
Woolf used artificial intelligence systems to synthesize pornographic imagery from legitimate social media photographs without consent. The deepfakes were shared on adult websites alongside grossly offensive messages soliciting users to further manipulate the images.
Governance controls
In August 2021, Woolf admitted 15 charges of sending messages that were grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing nature over a public electronic communications network. He received a 20-week prison sentence suspended for two years, but was not charged for creating or soliciting the deepfaked sexual images as this was not a criminal offence at the time.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.