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Big tech companies like Google, Apple, and Discord are making it easy for people to sign up for harmful “undressing” websites that use AI to remove clothing from real photos, making victims appear “naked” without their consent. There are more than a dozen such deepfake websites, which have been using the tech companies’ login buttons for months.
WIRED’s analysis found 16 of the biggest so-called strip-down and nudity sites to be using the sign-in infrastructure of Google, Apple, Discord, Twitter, Patreon and Line. The approach allows people to easily create accounts on deepfake sites, lending them a superficial sense of credibility, before paying credits to generate their images.
Bots and websites that create non-consensual intimate images of women and girls have existed for years, but their numbers are growing with the introduction of generative AI. This kind of “undressing” abuse is staggering. Widespreadwith teenage boys create Critics say tech companies have been slow to respond to the scale of the problem, with websites featuring photos of classmates appearing at the top of search results. Paid advertising promotion It was published on social media and the app App Store.
“This is a continuation of the trend of big tech companies normalizing sexual violence against women and girls,” said Adam Dodge, attorney and founder of EndTAB (Ending Technology-Enabled Abuse). “Sign-in APIs are a tool of convenience. Sexual violence shouldn’t be an act of convenience,” he said. “Instead of building walls around access to these apps, they’re giving people a drawbridge.”
The sign-in tools analyzed by WIRED were deployed through APIs and common authentication methods, allowing people to join deepfake websites using their existing accounts. Google’s login system appeared on 16 websites, Discord on 13, and Apple on six. X buttons appeared on three websites, and Patreon and messaging service Line buttons appeared on the same two websites.
WIRED is not naming these websites because they facilitate abuse. Part of and owned by a wider network The login system is used by the same person or company. Wide Have rule State developers cannot use it in a way that harms, harasses, or violates people’s privacy.
In response to WIRED’s inquiries, spokespeople for Discord and Apple said they removed developer accounts linked to their websites. Google said it would take action against developers if it found violations of its terms. Patreon said it was banning accounts that allowed the creation of explicit images, and Line acknowledged it was investigating but said it couldn’t comment on specific websites. X did not respond to a request for comment on how its systems are used.
The announcement comes hours after Judd Hoffman, Discord’s vice president of trust and safety, told WIRED that the company had suspended access to its API from those websites for violating its policies. Developer PolicyOne of the stripping websites posted on its Telegram channel that authentication via Discord was “temporarily unavailable” and claimed it was working to restore access. The stripping service did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about its operations.
Rapid expansion
Since the emergence of deepfake technology, End of 2017The production of non-consensual sexual videos and images has increased exponentially. While it has become harder to produce videos, the creation of images using “undressing” and “nudity” websites and apps has become commonplace.
“We need to be clear that this is not innovation, this is sexual abuse,” said San Francisco city attorney David Chiu, who recently Lawsuit against undressing/nudity site Chiu said the 16 websites targeted in his firm’s lawsuit received around 200 million visits in the first half of this year alone. “These websites are involved in the horrific exploitation of women and girls around the world. These images are used to bully, humiliate and blackmail women and girls,” Chiu argued.
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