Two of the biggest deepfake porn sites have now started blocking people trying to access them from the UK. The move comes days after the British government announced plan as a new law will make the non-consensual creation of deepfakes a criminal offence.
Non-consensual deepfake porn sites and apps that have the ability to “remove” clothes on photos have been banned. growing at an alarming rate—causing untold harm to the thousands of women they targeted.
Clare McGlynn, a professor at Durham University's Law School, said the move was an “incredibly important moment” in fight against deepfake abuse. “This ends the easy access and normalization of fake sexual abuse material,” McGlynn told WIRED.
Since deepfake technology first emerged in December 2017, it has been consistently used to create non-consensual pornographic images of women — swapping their faces into pornographic videos pornographic or allowing the creation of new “nude” images. As technology improved and became more accessible, hundreds of websites and applications were created. Most recently, students have was caught taking nude photos of a classmate.
The block on UK deepfake sites was first discovered today, with two of the most prominent services displaying messages on their landing pages that visitors from the country should not accessible anymore. WIRED is not naming the two sites because they allowed abuse.
One of the restricted websites is the largest deepfake porn website today. On its homepage, when accessed from the UK, it displays a message stating access is denied. “Due to legislation or (upcoming) legislation in your country or state, we are unfortunately forced to deny you access to this website,” the notice said. It also shows the visitor's IP address and country.
Another website, which also has an app, shows a similar message. “Access to the service in your country is blocked,” it said, before suggesting that there might be a way to bypass geo-restrictions. These sites do not appear to have any restrictions when accessed from the US, although they may be restricted in other countries as well.
It remains unclear why these sites introduced the location blocks or whether they did so in response to any legal order or notice. It's also unclear whether these blocks are temporary. Messages sent to the websites, via email addresses and contact forms, went unanswered. The site's creators have not posted any public announcement on their website or social media channels about the block.
Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, has the power to take action against harmful websites under UK regulations. controversial Review online safety laws took effect last year. However, these powers are not yet fully operational and the agency is consulting on them.
It is possible that the restrictions could significantly limit the number of people in the UK searching for or attempting to create fake sexual abuse content. Data from Similarweb, a digital intelligence company, shows that the largest of the two sites had 12 million global visitors last month, while the other had 4 million visitors. . In the UK, they have around 500,000 and 50,000 visitors respectively.
