Deepfakes ban: AI-enhanced celebrity porn videos may soon be harder to find online

Twitter and PornHub say they will both take action against AI-enhanced porn videos that use the faces of celebrities, a phenomenon now widely-known as "deepfakes".

Produced using face-swapping AI technology, the videos emerged online via a thriving Reddit community. After gaining notoriety they quickly spread across a number of popular websites, including social networking giants and chat applications such as Discord.

Celebrity victims have included Gal Gadot, Natalie Portman, Maisie Williams, Emma Watson, Daisy Ridley, Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Aubrey Plaza, Kate Middleton and Michelle Obama.

According to Motherboard, PornHub said it considers deepfakes a form of non-consensual porn, claiming any flagged clips will now be removed from the website.

A spokesperson said: "We do not tolerate any non-consensual content on the site and we remove all said content as soon as we are made aware of it.

"Non-consensual content directly violates our TOS [terms of service] and consists of content such as revenge porn, deepfakes or anything published without a person's consent or permission."

The site's VP, Corey Price, previously told Mashable: "Users have started to flag content like this, and we are taking it down as soon as we encounter the flags. We encourage anyone who encounters this issue to visit our content removal page so they can officially make a request."

Despite the promises, reports suggest that deepfakes-style videos are still slipping through the cracks. Additionally, the popular Reddit community is still highly active at the time of writing.

While they may soon be harder to find, the nature of the web means they are likely impossible to remove completely. If one website bans them, they will simply be uploaded elsewhere.

This week, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the social network will start to combat the videos, saying any accounts posting the content without consent will be suspended. "We will also suspend any account dedicated to posting this type of content," the spokesperson added.

In January this year, per Motherboard's reporting, the amount of AI-enhanced celebrity porn blew up significantly after a Reddit user designed – and released - a free machine learning app that simplified the video creation process and came with step-by-step instructions.

Experts warn the consequences of the tech will be widespread – not confined to the realm of porn. In the future, politics and propaganda may also come into play. As noted by the BBC, videos have already appeared showing US presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.