Searches on November 19 of two websites known to host deepfake ‘porn’, including one blocked in the UK but viewable with a VPN, revealed the sites – featuring AI celebrity porn and nudes – at the top of all searches. engine lists.

For deepfake pornography searches, in general, all three platforms displayed news about the phenomenon, its threat and consequences for victims, illustrating moves to crack down on the problem at tech companies as attention to the issue hit the mainstream with cases of high profile. , like Taylor Swift.

However, sites purportedly displaying celebrity deepfake porn also showed up on pages two, three and six of Google searches for “deepfake porn” on November 19.

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Cally Jane Beech: ‘Image abuse is a pandemic against women and girls’

Organizer and influencer Cally Jane Beech is honored as GLAMOR Activist of the Year at our annual Women of the Year Awards for bravely taking a stand against digitally altered and sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ of women and girls. Here, she talks to GLAMOR about her experience of profoundly fake abuse, how motherhood influences her activism, and why she’s calling on the government to protect all survivors of image-based abuse.

Searches for creating deepfakes also showed tools and guides for making them on all three platforms, including 12 free “deepfake porn maker” tools in one link.

Some deepfake software requires computing knowledge and processing power, taking weeks or even months to master. And of course, not all deepfakes are explicit, non-consensual or illegal. But search engines make guides to all deepfakes more accessible.

Search engines promoting access to tools play a “crucial role” in facilitating the creation of deep fake abuse and its audiences, said Elena Michael, co-founder of NotYourPorn, which campaigns against online image-based sexual abuse with survivors.

“Nobody has a chance to remove deepfakes when there are hundreds of listings,” Michael said of the many tools and guides to create and view deepfakes, sites recommending the technology, and forums discussing deepfake abuse. “These listings are accessible to anyone and everyone. “, she added.

Recent comments by technology secretary Peter Kyle that tech giants including Google and Microsoft they should be treated as nation states doesn’t push for platform accountability, Michael added.

The message to survivors and women is that a company’s right – including search engines – to make money is more important than your right to exist freely and safely both offline and online.

“The message to survivors and women is that the right of a company (including search engines) to make money is more important than your right to exist freely and safely both offline and online.”

A government spokesman said: “Under the Online Safety Act, it is already an offense to distribute or threaten to distribute intimate images, including deepfakes, without consent. Earlier this month, we strengthened the Act to make it clear that platforms will need to prioritize tackling the abuse of fake intimate images, proactively remove more of this material and prevent it from appearing in the first place.

“We are committed to strengthening the safety of women and girls online and offline, which is why we are determined to deliver on our manifest commitment to ban their creation as quickly as possible.”