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NLJ this week: How deepfake tech is super-charging abuse

14 March 2025
Issue: 8108 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal , Artificial intelligence , Technology , Media , Abuse , Cybercrime
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The rise of deepfake videos, deepfake porn and unsolicited sexual images (cyberflashing) is an alarming and increasingly prevalent problem. In this week’s NLJ, Jenni Dempster KC and Maleeka Bokhari, Red Lion Chambers, look into this abuse, the harm it causes and the legal protections that exist, notably the Online Safety Act 2023.

What is the scope of existing protection, what are the defences, how tough are the sanctions, what legislative developments are underway and how will they work in practice? The problem is widespread. As the authors report, ‘an analysis of 14,678 deepfake online videos, highlighted that 96% of them were non-consensual intimate content and that 100% of examined content on the top five “deepfake” pornography websites targeted women’.

Dempster and Bokhari write: ‘This worrying trend cannot be allowed to exist in any democracy where the autonomy, dignity and voices of women are threatened because of malicious AI-generated content.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

National Pro Bono Centre—Esther McConnell & Sarah Oliver Scemla

National Pro Bono Centre—Esther McConnell & Sarah Oliver Scemla

Charity strengthens leadership as national Pro Bono Week takes place

Michelman Robinson—Akshay Sewlikar

Michelman Robinson—Akshay Sewlikar

Dual-qualified partner joins London disputes practice

McDermott Will & Schulte—Karen Butler

McDermott Will & Schulte—Karen Butler

Transactions practice welcomes partner in London office

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