Pornhub has today taken a stand against fake celebrity sex videos created with a machine learning algorithm commonly referred to as deepfakes.
Speaking with Motherboard, the website confirmed it will now ban these videos, considering them nonconsensual.
“We do not tolerate any nonconsensual content on the site and we remove all said content as soon as we are made aware of it,” a spokesperson told Motherboard in an email. “Nonconsensual 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 clips are made by using AI to superimpose a person’s face onto an actor’s body. The results often vary, but some clips look eerily real. Usually, this kind of thing is seen in the special effects industry on high-budget films, like Princess Leia‘s appearance in Rogue One, for example
Pornhub’s latest move is comparable to companies like Discord and Gfycat, prohibiting content that “impersonates another person or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person,” as per the porn site’s terms and service.
Despite the site’s intentions and statement, there’s still a ton of deepfakes getting around, according to journalist, Samantha Cole, who says many of them are easily searchable under the term “deepfakes”.
While it’ll put a dent in the deepfake community’s reach (Pornhub gets over 75 million visitors every day), the issue will likely become difficult to stamp out altogether.
