Lena Schilling of Austrian Greens says images are ‘digital violence against women’ and a threat to democracy

Here is the report: Targeted and Ignored. Sexualised Deepfakes of Women MEPs and the Failure of Platform Responses (pdf)

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An Austrian MEP has spoken out about her experience of being “stripped naked” online without her consent and has urged the EU to take action, as a report found that one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content.

Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online. When she opened the links, she found herself staring at images from one of her first ever press conferences – but the images had been digitally altered to remove her clothing.

It was a shocking twist on a defining moment of her career. “I felt disgusted,” she said. “I remember how nervous I was and how much I had prepared for the press conference. And then to see someone using this image in a way aimed at harming and humiliating me was really hard to grasp.”

Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT).

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Archived

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.orgEnglish
    46·
    18 hours ago

    So, how much does closing the Internet for children and forcing digital IDs on everyone solve that problem? Next step is to forbid internet access for women?

    This is not the solution.

    • tardigrade@scribe.disroot.orgOPEnglish
      81·
      17 hours ago

      Digital IDs are a threat to democracy, too, but here they call for a ban of the apps enabling to produce these nude deepfakes.

      • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        15 hours ago

        Of course, regulating the industry is out of the question, so the onus will fall on the users. They’ll make it illegal to shoot someone, but not illegal to manufacture and sell guns.

        Oh, wait, we’re talking about computer software here. So, I guess they need to ban possession of pictures of naked women, and ban Photoshop, too, then. But, that won’t happen, so just the generative AI that makes it easy to make realistic pictures, then? Right, so no one can install or run a trainable AI package on a local machine, and the cloud-based ones are regulated. That’ll solve it!

        They want to take the tools they use to manipulate us, from us. Also, they really need us to start paying for these things.

        It’s a complicated issue, that goes far beyond fake nudes.

        • tardigrade@scribe.disroot.orgOPEnglish
          2·
          15 hours ago

          As far as I can tell from the linked content, they call for a ban of the apps enabling to produce these nude deepfakes.

          • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            14 hours ago

            Got it. What good will “banning the apps” do, when we can still install the app locally, and train them ourselves?

            Most of them might not understand this is possible at the moment, after all they’re just smiling lizards, but banning local instances will be next, once they figure it out. But, how to do that?

            No, this is just another “protect the children” ruse. She may not even know what role she’s playing in this. Hell, it’s even possible it was a setup.

    • CannonFodder@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      14 hours ago

      The solution is education. People need to learn the harm their actions can do. They need to learn that they are part of a society and their contribution is important. People need to be taught how to empathize with others if it doesn’t come naturally. And if they can’t learn that, they should be shot.

  • Marthirial@lemmy.worldBanned from communityEnglish
    818·
    17 hours ago

    It would help if she stops using a green screen as background for her press conferences.