Google Set to Crackdown on Deepfake Pornographic Promotional Material

World’s leading search engine is set to crack down on deepfake porn videos and deepfake images of celebrities and other people having sexually explicit content by the end of this month.

Generative AI has become a pressing concern for many online platforms as it is now being excessively used to damage people’s reputations by creating pornographic pictures and videos that look highly realistic. To combat this ill and seemingly responding to the latest proposed regulatory update of the UK’s Criminal Justice Bill, Google has updated its ‘Inappropriate Content Policy to prohibit the use of synthetic content alteration through Deepfake that contains nudity or is sexually explicit.

Just 4 days ago the UK responded to the issue of deepfake porn by proposing that the creation and sharing of deepfake pornographic material by adults will cause serious legal consequences including imprisonment and fines.

Recently three apps have been banned from advertising on Google Play Store upon violating their existing policy. This policy primarily targets apps on Play Store that use AI Face Swaps and promote nudity through deepfake porn. 

It is highly important to ensure deepfake prevention as it not only causes psychological and social damage to individuals by making their fake porn but can also be used to bully individuals, extortion by threatening to leak such videos and other illicit activities. Even if deepfake AI technology is not recognized as a crime as of yet it become the root cause of other serious criminal offenses of its direct and illicit use. This is why regulating the use of deepfake technology is vitally important.

Lastly, deepfake faces must only be used for marketing and promotional purposes under the moral and ethical guidelines of the regulated jurisdictions. UK’s regulators and Google have taken a solid step in this regard and this sets a benchmark for other nations and online platforms to support this movement and continue eradicating explicit material from the internet.