On October 17, 2021, Taiwan uncovered the country’s first “Deepfake” crime.
Xiaoyu, a well-known Taiwanese Youtuber with over a million followers, is suspected of setting up a “Taiwan Internet celebrities Deepfake” group on Telegram, an encrypted social software, starting in July 2020. By using Deepfake technology, the facial images of Internet celebrities, entertainers, and politicians were put onto the bodies of the main characters in adult films, and the group bid for the videos. So far, illegal profits made from these videos have exceeded tens of millions of New Taiwanese Dollars, and it is estimated that more than 100 people have been victims of “Deepfake adult films”.
Now, technology has made it possible for anyone to become a victim of digital sexual violence, even if they had never taken any intimate sexual images.
More than 90% of “Deepfake” films were fake without consent
AI brings us into new and brazen crime territory. In the early days, criminals used Photoshop to superimpose victims’ faces onto naked still images. But as technology evolved, this form of violence became more destructive. Today, with Deepfake, perpetrators can upload a few photos, select a film and press a button and create an adult film without consent. The infamous “Deepfake porn” made by Internet celebrity Xiaoyu is just the tip of the iceberg. More than 80,000 fake videos using “Deepfake” were detected online by the end of 2020, according to a report by intelligence company Sensity AI. It estimates that 90 to 95％ of these films are sexually explicit, and non-consensual. And up to 90 percent of the victims are women.
“I am afraid to open my Facebook or IG page or make eye contact with people on the road. I don’t know who has seen my photos,” said Jiayi (not her real name), one of our clients, with a desperate look in her eyes. “I could never go back to my normal life again.” Unless she’s completely cut off from the internet and digital technology, these images could reappear at any time and destroy the life she has.
As the technological threshold, production time, and cost to fabricate intimate sexual images get lower and lower, the ever-developing digital technology has become the perfect tool for perpetrators to inflict violence and control their victims. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in ten women worldwide has experienced digital sexual violence.
Pay attention to digital human rights and confront the occurrence of harm
Victims often hear a similar response from police, prosecutors, and other authorities: “They are just pictures, go and live your life. Don’t use the Internet, Facebook, or Instagram.” However, what most people don’t know is that digital sexual violence is not only a crime that exists in the online world, but also often occurs in conjunction with other forms of violence, such as defamation, seduction, and bullying. However, with the advent of the Digital Natives generation, the development of digital personas is inseparable from real life. Most people’s interpersonal relationships on the internet and social platforms are gradually greater than that in real life. If the victims’ digital personas are harassed or attacked, their real personas will be harmed.
Liao Pei-Ru, Associate Professor at Pingtung University of Science and Technology, said: “For digital natives, there’s no difference between the online world and the offline world, it’s just the way they live, there’s no line between the online world and real life, the two are one. More often than not, what happens online is an extension of what happens offline; what happens offline spills over into the online world.”
What is digital sexual violence?
In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Executive Yuan defines sexual digital/cyber violence as “gender-based violence through the internet or digital means, that is, violence against or disproportionately affects others, including physical, psychological or sexual harm, suffering, intimidation, repression, and deprivation of other freedom of movement.”
A more similar concept is what Henry and Powell, the authors of Sexual Violence in the Digital Age, call “Technology-Facilitated sexual violence”. More broadly, they refer to it as; Sexual assault, harassment, or harm that occurs not only in cyberspace but also outside of the digital world, in various forms of violence involving the use of communications technology, such as the use of dating software to lie for sex and other criminal forms.
Liao’s review of the Henry and Powell literature shows that “technology-enabled sexual violence” can be divided into five main aspects, These include Online Sexual Harassment, Gender- and Sexualitybased Harassment, Cyberstalking or Cyber-Obsessive Pursuit, Image-Based Sexual Exploitation, and the Use of Communications Technologies to Coerce a Victim into an Unwanted Sexual Act.
Five aspects of Technology-enabled sexual violence
Online Sexual Harassment
These include online bullying, online sexual advance, sexual/other hate speech, unwanted and sexual comments, revenge porn, threats of rape, and unwanted sexual offers or images. Both men and women experienced online bullying, while women reported higher rates of sexual or gender-based harassment.
Gender and sexuality-based Harassment
The perpetrator may be one person or a group of people. Sexual harassment, which occurs mostly in chat rooms, forums, or via E-mail or social media, includes hate speech related to gender and sexual orientation, threats of Rape, defamatory online rumors, false account attacks, false accusations of violence, and “Virtual Rape.”
Cyberstalking or Cyber-Obsessive Pursuit
In addition to real-life sexual behavior, the use of electronic communication devices for stalking harassment, or surveillance. Some studies actually show that men are more likely to be victims of stalking and harassment.
Image-Based Sexual Exploitation
The victims are subjected to Online Sexual Harassment due to video distribution without consent.
- Making or recording intimate sexual images: the victim may or may not know they were recorded; The sexual activity may or may not be consensual; Photos or videos were made, such as Fake porn, Deepfake porn.
- Sharing or spreading sexually intimate images: The victim may be the subject of the distributed images or may be coerced into sharing sexually intimate images with the public.
- Threatening to distribute intimate images of sex: the perpetrator intimidates the victim in an intimate relationship, or the hacker intimidates the victim for financial gain.
The use of communications technologies to coerce a victim into an unwanted sexual Act
- By means of blackmail, inducements, or threats, the victim is forced to engage in recording sexual acts, or the victim is coerced into revealing private images or information.
- Using a dating site or dating app to set up a meeting with the victim and then rape him.
How does each country address the challenge of digital crime?
The inability of outdated laws to keep up with new forms of crime is a challenge faced by every country. We are also seeing individual countries taking action to bring about changes at the national policy, judicial, institutional and educational levels.
The MIT Technology Review pointed out that 46 states in the United States currently regulate the distribution of sexually intimate videos, including revenge pornography, but only a few states such as Virginia, California, where Deepfake films are included in the scope of regulation; Revenge porn is banned in the UK, but faked images are not covered by the law.
South Korea, has been actively revising its laws in recent years in response to emerging forms of digital violence. In March 2020, South Korea amended the Special Law on Punishment for Sexual Violence Crimes to impose a penalty of up to five years in prison or 50 million won in fines for using Deepfake technology to create private sexual images without consent. The penalty for profit-making is up to seven years in prison. In April of the same year, it was amended again to impose a maximum sentence of three years in prison for possessing, purchasing, storing, or viewing illegal private videos. The South Korean government also announced the Digital Crime Eradication Measures, which established the principle of “delete first, review later.” If illegal films are found, domestic companies must delete their files immediately.
At the end of September this year, Hong Kong passed the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 2021 on the third reading of the Legislative Council, which includes the enactment of four offenses including “voyeurism” and “taking pictures of private parts without consent”, and a series of digital sexual violence involving taking, distributing and threatening without consent, violating the victim’s physical autonomy and involving private sexual images. Making these acts criminal offenses.
The offenses of “publishing or threatening to publish private images without consent” cover the subsequent fabrication of false images and the power of the court to issue a “disposal order” which the Government can apply to a magistrate to order the removal and destruction of images within a time limit; The maximum penalty for breaching the “disposal order” is a fine of HK $100,000 and one year’s imprisonment.
Improve the “forced takedown” mechanism to avoid second-degree damage
The direction of law revision in all countries is the same — to establish a perfect “forced removal” mechanism. “Whether it’s a law revision or another law, what the victims are more concerned about is, is there a way for these photos and videos to disappear completely from the Internet?” critical question brought by Wang Yueh-Hao, CEO of the Garden of Hope Foundation. “The removal of images is often the most urgent need of victims, to avoid being seen by anyone.” she later said.
From our experiences, we found that in addition to the juvenile victims who can force the film to be taken down through the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, Wang Yueh-Hao said that if the victims are adults, they can only use the Criminal Law’s “Offenses Against Reputation and Credit”, “Offenses Against Privacy”, “Offenses of threatens to cause injury to the life,” or “Offenses of distributing indecent materials”. “But none of the current laws in Taiwan require the removal of sexual privacy content, and there is no immediate and effective mechanism for taking it down.” She went on to point out that the crime of distributing indecent material indirectly regards the victim’s private sexual content as indecent material that undermines social customs. “This is not only a secondary injury but also the source of the injury itself. Even if professional services are provided, it is difficult to recover from the trauma.”
The Garden of Hope Foundation calls for the expansion of a special law on the prevention and control of sexual images
The Garden of Hope Foundation advocates and calls on the government to enact a special law on the Prevention and Control of sexual intimate images, establish laws and regulations at the national level, recognize the seriousness of digital sexual violence, understand the diversity of crimes, and change the mentality that ignores digital sexual violence or regards it as entertainment or joke.
The wave of digital sexual violence is about to hit, and many victims are now being held back by “the distribution of intimate sexual images without consent”, Internet bullying, and an inadequate legal system.
The Garden of Hope Foundation believes that the revision of the current law can only temporarily prevent emergent problems. The government should actively revise or enact new laws in a more comprehensive and forward-looking way, from the education, medical, police, judicial, and other systems. The Garden of Hope Foundation advocates the adoption of a special law on the Prevention and Control of Sexual pornography and the establishment of national regulations to establish the seriousness of digital sexual violence.
By understanding the multiple profiles of digital violent crimes and their often simultaneous nature online and in the real world, it is possible to develop sound social systems and regulations, such as providing victims with necessary protection measures, such as a full-day telephone hotline service, emergency rescue, accompanied diagnosis and treatment, injury examination, evidence collection, and even emergency placement, as well as to assist victims with psychological treatment, counseling, and legal services.
In this way, there is a better chance to change the mentality of the public that ignores digital violence or sees it as a joke.
The Garden of Hope Foundation Calls on the government
- To establish a mechanism for immediate removal: to assist victims to retrieve sexual intimate images that are threatened to distribute, and to immediately remove them from online platforms.
- Improve victim services: Provide victims with social work, counseling, and legal counseling services to help victims recover from trauma.
- Victims have the right to a friendly justice system: ensure that police and prosecutors understand the deep damage caused by digital sexual violence, and that law enforcement officials and authorities are held accountable if victims are mishandled or ignored by prosecutors and police.
- Implementation of primary prevention work: the central government and the competent authorities of prevention and publicity responsibilities, prevention and control education of professionals, and gender equality education curriculum.