Reuters published a blog post yesterday, January 7, reporting thatU.K.The government has struck hard.Explicitly creating and sharing indecency"Deep fakes" (deepfakes) images, which is a criminal offense. The move will fill a gap in the existing legislation and better protect victims. This will fill the gaps in existing legislation and better protect victims.
Note: Deep Fake technology uses artificial intelligence to create realistic videos, images or audio that can be doctored to look like anyone's likeness in pornographic content. Data from the UK's Revenge Porn Helpline shows that image abuse based on deep fakes has increased by more than 400% since 2017.
The UK began criminalizing the posting of private photos or videos without consent (i.e., "revenge porn") in 2015, but the law did not cover the use of fake images, and the new law will close this loophole by making it clear that the creation and sharing of pornographic, deeply faked images is a crime.
The UK government will also create new offences of up to two years' imprisonment for taking private images without consent and for installing devices used in such crimes, with tech platforms also facing stricter scrutiny and significant penalties if they host misused images.
The new law will be included in the Government's Crime and Policing Bill to be tabled in Parliament on a date yet to be determined. Government officials emphasized that this demeaning and disgusting form of chauvinism must not become the norm. The new law is designed to protect women and girls from the growing cyber-misogyny and image abuse, and to severely punish the perpetrators.
