By Aimee Duffy

AI has become widely used across the world, whether it’s for creating stories, helping students with their work or creating content for social media. AI is argued to be somewhat beneficial to those looking for quick and easy answers or to generate large amounts of information at a time. Despite the advantages of AI, there are many dangers surrounding it. Women have become victim to exploitation online due to deepfake videos and images being created without their knowledge.

It's clear that people are using AI as another way to target women by posting TikTok’s and Instagram reels of explicit and violent videos using women’s faces without their consent a process referred to as deepfakes. There has been an uproar about videos being posted specifically on TikTok which are extremely harmful towards women, leaving them feeling helpless.

Charmaine O’Donnell, a young woman who lost her life after being pushed from a pier in Helensburgh, has now been targeted online by a deepfake video. The video posted on TikTok shows a realistic AI generated video of Charmaine explaining her own death, which her family have now discovered. This specific page on TikTok has victimised many women who have been through similar situations within the UK, creating videos of them explaining the brutal crimes that led to their deaths.

Jacqueline Gallacher, Charmaine’s mother reported the page, yet TikTok stated it did not violate their community guidelines. Victim Support Scotland have successfully removed one of the videos from this page while helping a family that were in distress before the page was ultimately taken down. In an Instagram post from the charity, they said: “We are relieved that the account has since been taken down, but the harm and trauma for families who had loved ones featured in these videos will remain.”

These online videos are creating a new form of violence against women, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stop their creation and distribution. In an article from UN Women, research has found that up to 95% of deepfake videos online are non-consensual pornographic images or videos of women. Abuse towards women online is at an all-time high as the amount of deepfake videos online targeting women was 550% higher in 2023 than it was in 2019.

Cathy Newman, a Channel 4 News presenter, became a victim of deepfake pornographic material which was spread across five different websites. She said: “It feels like a violation. It just feels really sinister that someone out there has put this together. I can’t see them, and they can see this kind of imaginary version of me, this fake version of me.”

To date there are more than 250 British celebrities alone, alongside thousands of other famous people who have fallen victim to this crime.

Ultimately there is still a prominent issue with AI generated videos and images targeting women online. Although the Online Safety Act has made the sharing and creation of AI generated intimate videos illegal from the 31st January 2024, it is almost impossible to remove all of the non-consensual explicit content of women online. It’s obvious that misogyny has become an even bigger problem as it has moved into the digital world and isn’t just happening in real life, this proves that women are still under threat as they face violence almost everywhere they look.

How AI is Hurting Women Online