The new technologies have radically changed the world as we know it. Even those people who refuse to use mobile devices, or refuse to have social networks, end up falling into the trap of modernity. And it is that today it is almost impossible not to take advantage of the advantages that these technologies bring us on a day-to-day basis. Easier to communicate, wherever we are. Possibility of working anywhere in the world, thanks to Internet connections. Quick purchases, instant information… The cybernetic world has become a second home for many, and even the first for those who almost prefer that reality to ours. You feel comfortable on the Internet, where you can surf anonymously, find everything you need, and have the opportunity to express yourself freely. But there is also a dark side to that coin. The British series Black Mirror, currently on the Netflix streaming platform, has been theorizing for years about the dark side of new technologies.
How they were changing our way of understanding the world, of facing it. The fine line that separates reality and fiction in this series blurs completely as the years go by and we find, horrified, that its scripts only anticipated an uncertain future. Identity theft, for example, is one of the most common dangers found on the Internet today. And it is logical to fear something like this because they can literally steal everything that we are. There are people who have seen their lives come crashing down because of a hacking on their account, because of the theft of their passwords, because of a deepfake video in which they supposedly appeared… They just weren’t. Technology already allows this type of assembly to be carried out at such a professional level that most users would not be aware of the deception. And of course, this has been exploited not only for political purposes, but also for sexual ones. Porn is the great breeding ground for deepfake technology, with millions of videos “starring” celebrities and all kinds of people, who were never really there.
A well-known British activist
The story of Kate Isaacs is especially painful in this sense, since the young British woman is precisely an activist against non-consensual pornography on the Internet. In 2019, Isaacs started a campaign through an association called #NotYourPorn, to remove all videos that had been uploaded without the consent of their participants.
We would put our hands to our heads when we know the figures that are handled around this type of porn, since there are millions of videos. Many of them are uploaded by anonymous people, and in many other cases, the motive behind it is simple revenge against an ex-partner. There are also videos with minors, which is a particularly serious crime. When Isaacs began his campaign, many trembled.
A fake porn video
The campaign became so publicized that Isaacs appeared in very powerful media outlets in the United Kingdom, such as Metro or The Sun. His message reached very far, even Pornhub itself, one of the most important and followed sexual pages in the world. Its managers admitted that there were videos of this type on their platform, since they were uploaded by unverified anonymous accounts. Faced with the avalanche of videos, its moderators could not find them all. However, they promised to make a drastic decision: delete all videos uploaded by unauthorized accounts. This meant, in fact, a very high percentage of the porn that could be found on this website. However, the controversy did not end there.
Pornhub’s decision, which was certainly notable at the media and commercial level, angered many of its users. Obviously, they could not comment on this in the public forums, since they would be assuming that they preferred non-consensual porn to that which is produced commercially. However, the web suffered different cyber attacks in the days after the deletion of the content. The worst part, however, was taken by Kate herself. As the image of the company and its main activist, his name became a target for all those users who were pissed off by Pornhub’s decision. And his revenge was “poetic”, releasing a video in which supposedly Isaacs appeared having sex with his partner. The worst nightmare of a woman who was fighting precisely against the uploading of non-consensual content to the networks. Only it was all a trick, a set-up, just as she had predicted so many times.
Victim of a campaign against her image
The name Kate Isaacs became very popular in the UK not only after the appearance of her campaign, but especially after Pornhub’s decision to remove non-consensual porn. He appeared in numerous newspapers and talk shows, and his public image became very popular. So much so that it didn’t take long for him to fall victim to everything he had tried to prevent. From the beginning, Isaacs already showed the dangers of deepfake technology, a kind of video editing montage in which any user with good skills could put the face of an anonymous person on that of a < strong>porn actor or actress. This technology was not exactly new, but the difference is that now it had reached the ideal point to pass the gimmicked videos as authentic.
The editing programs had already managed to replace the faces in any scene with a lot of credibility. You could even get that “new face” to speak in a voice very close, if not the same, to that real person. The cinema and television had already used this technology, but now it was within the reach of any user. And there were those who decided to use it against Kate Isaacs, for her vehement campaign against deepfake porn itself. The video appeared on all porn portals, and although it was withdrawn, Isaacs verified how thousands of users had swallowed the trick, thinking it was really her. It was a direct attack on his image, especially harmful, since it was assumed that his entire campaign was aimed at preventing the appearance of that video. As if he had something to hide.
The dangers of deepfakes
It didn’t take long to prove that the video that had appeared was simply a montage, but the damage had already been done. Isaacs’s image suffered for a few days, although then it was completely restored, with an extra warning that it could happen to anyone.
The deepfake is a technology that has advanced a lot in recent times, and people are not aware that any video can be a hoax. Now we are all exposed to our image being used without our permission, not only for porn, but for any kind of dishonorable or controversial statement. Very difficult times are coming for those who want to safeguard their image, because technology, although wonderful and very useful, can also be terribly controversial.