Deepfake Porn is a Harrowing New Frontier of Digital Harassment for Women

The rise of deepfakes has enabled a disturbing new form of digital harassment targeting women, even at the highest levels of politics, with little recourse for victims.

A public servant targeted: Sabrina Javellana, one of Florida’s youngest elected officials, discovered explicit deepfake images of herself posted on online forums alongside misogynistic comments:

• The fakes were nearly identical to real photos from her social media accounts, but with her clothes digitally removed.
• As a progressive politician, Javellana had faced vitriolic threats before, but this violation felt distinctly personal and traumatizing.

Seeking help and finding dead ends: Javellana’s attempts to get the images removed and perpetrators held accountable met numerous roadblocks:

• Police were unsure how to handle the relatively new technology and were limited in their jurisdiction over anonymous online harassers.
• Websites hosting the images, including notorious forum 4chan, were uncooperative in removing the content.
• Laws at the time did not explicitly outlaw deepfake pornography, leaving victims with little legal recourse.

A pervasive threat to women: Javellana’s experience highlights the growing use of deepfakes to target and harass women, from celebrities to private individuals:

• The technology has rapidly advanced, making it easier than ever to create realistic fake explicit images.
• Women in the public eye, like politicians and journalists, are especially vulnerable to this form of gendered harassment.
• Even with new laws criminalizing nonconsensual deepfake porn, the damage to victims’ reputations, careers, and mental health is often already done.

Analyzing deeper: Javellana’s story underscores the unique challenges posed by deepfakes and the uphill battle victims face in seeking justice. While a new Florida law now makes publishing explicit deepfakes a crime, the anonymity of online spaces and lack of cooperation from web platforms leaves the root issue largely unaddressed. As the technology continues to advance and spread, policymakers and tech companies will need to grapple with fundamental questions around digital consent, content moderation, and legal accountability in a world where seeing is no longer believing. For victims like Javellana, the emotional toll and loss of control over one’s own image may be felt long after the fakes disappear from the web.