Leading British female politicians have been targeted by fake pornography, including AI-generated deepfakes, an investigation by Channel 4 News has found. Among those featured on a prominent fake pornography website are Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, former Home Secretary Priti Patel, and Labour backbencher Stella Creasy.
Many of the images have been online for several years and have attracted hundreds of thousands of views. While some are crude Photoshops with a politician's head superimposed onto another person's naked body, others appear to be more sophisticated deepfakes created using AI technology. Some of the politicians targeted have contacted police.
Former Conservative MP Dehenna Davison, who lost her seat at the recent election, told Channel 4 News it was “really strange” and “quite violating”. She warned that without a proper regulatory framework for AI, there would be “major problems”. Stella Creasy said she felt “sick” and described the images as being about “power and control”, not sexual pleasure.
Nonconsensual deepfake technology, which uses AI to strip clothes or create fake nude photos from a photograph, has become a growing issue. Since the Online Safety Act was introduced in January, sharing such imagery without consent has been illegal in the UK, but creation remains legal. The government had planned to close this loophole, but the proposed law was dropped when Rishi Sunak called an early election. The Conservatives, Labour, and Liberal Democrats have pledged to reintroduce the ban if they win the next election.
The UK's stance on deepfake pornography is tougher than many other countries, leading some major sites to block British users pre-emptively. US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is pushing for similar laws in the US, warned that “people are going to kill themselves over this” after encountering a deepfake of herself.
