By Matt Burgess
Two of the biggest deepfake pornography websites have now started blocking people trying to access them from the United Kingdom. The move comes days after the UK government announced plans for a new law that will make creating nonconsensual deepfakes a criminal offense.
Nonconsensual deepfake pornography websites and apps that “strip” clothes off of photos have been growing at an alarming rate—causing untold harm to the thousands of women they are used to target.
Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University, says the move is a “hugely significant moment” in the fight against deepfake abuse. “This ends the easy access and the normalization of deepfake sexual abuse material,” McGlynn tells WIRED.
Deepfake technology, first surfacing in December 2017, has often been utilized to create unauthorized sexual content of women, involving their faces being superimposed on pornographic scenes or generating new “nude” images. With technological advancements and easier access, numerous websites and apps have come into existence. Recently, even schoolchildren were found producing nudes of their classmates.
Today, the barriers on deepfake websites in the UK have been noticed, with two principal services informing through their homepages that accessibility for people from the country is no longer possible. WIRED has chosen not to disclose the identities of these two websites since they indirectly facilitate abuse.
The leading deepfake pornography site currently operating is one of those enforcing these imposed restrictions. A visitor from the UK would see a message on its homepage denying access, stating it’s due to the laws or impending legislation in the user’s country or state. It additionally shares the IP address and country of the visitor.
A comparable message is displayed on the other website, which is also accompanied by an app. It mentions, “Access to the service in your country is blocked,” and suggests a possible bypass to the geographical restriction. As of now, these sites seem unrestricted for visitors from the U.S, although they may be prohibited in other countries.
It is not immediately clear why the sites have introduced the location blocks or whether they have done so in response to any legal orders or notices. Nor is it clear whether the blocks are temporary. Messages sent to the websites through email addresses and contact forms went unanswered. The creators of the websites have not posted any public messages on the websites or their social media channels about the blocks.
Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has the power to pursue action against harmful websites under the UK’s controversial sweeping online safety laws that came into force last year. However, these powers are not yet fully operational, and Ofcom is still consulting on them.
It’s likely the restrictions may significantly limit the amount of people in the UK seeking out or trying to create deepfake sexual abuse content. Data from Similarweb, a digital intelligence company, shows the biggest of the two websites had 12 million global visitors last month, while the other website had 4 million visitors. In the UK, they had around 500,000 and 50,000 visitors, respectively.
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This week, politicians in the UK announced plans for a law that criminalizes the creation of nonconsensual deepfakes. Under the law, which is yet to be passed, people could face an unlimited fine if they create deepfakes to “cause alarm, humiliation, or distress to the victim.” This builds on previous provisions that make it illegal for people in the UK to share sexualized deepfakes.
“While it’s unclear if these platforms have been ordered to block UK access or have done so proactively due to the recent criminalization, it shows legislation can make a meaningful difference in removing the legal ambiguity that many deepfake pornography platforms use as cover for the clear ethical harms they cause,” Henry Ajder, an AI and deepfake expert, tells WIRED. Ajder adds that search engines and hosting providers around the world should be doing more to limit the spread and creation of harmful deepfakes.
While the two websites can still be accessed in the UK using a VPN, the restrictions are a sign that constant pressure—from lawmakers, tech companies, and campaigners—can make deepfake porn harder to access and create. “Of course, people will be able to use VPN to access these websites and apps, but that introduces friction,” Durham University’s McGlynn says. “It introduces a message that there’s something wrong and harmful about this material such that you have to use a VPN to access it.”
“Hopefully,” McGlynn adds, “this can show other governments around the world that if we take steps, we could actually reduce the prevalence [of] and easy access to deepfake sexual abuse material.”
