Twitch Bans Deepfake Pornography

Twitch has taken a significant stance against deepfake porn. Technology is evolving at a rapid and somewhat scary rate. AI is a huge part of our society now and people are using it in very creative ways. Some of this is harmless and meant for fun, education, or whatever. However, it has also been used to cause incredible amounts of damage to people. Deepfakes allow people to essentially put another person's face over someone else's, allowing them to basically create a digital clone of someone. While these deepfakes have telltale signs to be able to spot them, some have used them to create porn of celebrities, influencers, and even just regular people. It's incredibly gross and became a hot topic on Twitch lately.

Last month, a Twitch streamer known as Atrioc was caught using a site that did deepfake porn of his friends/colleagues on Twitch. He was immediately criticized and after a public apology, he has stepped away from streaming and creating content. The site was also swiftly taken down, but it didn't stop the women involved from feeling rightfully objectified amongst many other things. Other similar sites also exist, so this problem isn't going to go away. However, Twitch is doing its best to counter it and minimize its impact as much as possible. The streaming platform released a lengthy post about the matter, emphasizing it as "synthetic non-consensual exploitative images," or "synthetic NCEI." Twitch noted that pornography is consensual and this is not, so it wants to find a way to emphasize the difference without labeling it all "deepfake porn". 

With that said, a number of rules have been put in place to try and limit its impact. For starters, the rules are being updated to ensure that intentionally promoting, creating, or sharing synthetic NCEI can "result in an indefinite suspension on the first offense." Similarly, if it is shown even briefly on stream, even if it's to express disapproval or outrage of the content, you can also be punished. It's clear Twitch doesn't want it platformed in any capacity, as even negative coverage could still lead people to it.

What do you think of Twitch's new rules? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.