Controversy over newest case of sexist web site concentrating on ladies in Italy.
Italy’s postal police have launched an investigation right into a sexist web site that includes bare pictures of dozens of well-known Italian ladies, generated utilizing synthetic intelligence and revealed with out their consent.
The case got here to gentle on Sunday after Italian journalist Francesca Barra took to Instagram to say she had found an grownup web site that includes AI-generated pornographic pictures of her, slamming it as “an act of violence and an abuse that undermines dignity, popularity and belief”.
“I considered my kids and felt embarrassed and afraid of what they may hear or learn if these pictures fell into the improper fingers”, Barra wrote, including that she thought “of the ladies that suffer the identical digital violence and who maybe do not have the identical instruments to defend themselves or the energy to combat again”.
The web site below investigation known as Social Media Girls which reportedly provides numerous pornographic and erotic companies, typically based mostly on the usage of synthetic intelligence software program.
The pictures cited by Barra are obtained for a price by utilizing the “Undress AI” service to generate erotic or pornographic pictures from actual pictures out there on-line.
Celebrities
The portal additionally options an “Italian nude VIPs” part, that includes ladies from the world of leisure, media and politics together with influencer Chiara Ferragni, sports activities presenter Diletta Leotta, display screen legend Sophia Loren, journalists Francesca Fagnani and Selvaggia Lucarelli, TV presenters Michelle Hunziker and Elisabetta Canalis, singers Elodie, Angelina Mango and Arisa, and politician Maria Elena Boschi.
“There are greater than 50 well-known Italian ladies on the positioning with nudes created with AI” – Selvaggia Lucarelli wrote on Instagram – “on a discussion board that hosts greater than seven million customers, with tens of hundreds of members lively 24/7.”
Lucarelli revealed an article about the case on Monday, saying she had been finding out the web site for weeks and was prompted to publish her findings after Barra’s put up.
According to Lucarelli, the positioning incorporates hundreds of movies of ladies who had been unaware they had been being filmed, with references to footage obtained from safety cameras, hidden cameras, nudist seashores and physician’s workplaces.
She believes the footage was “most probably obtained from video surveillance programs related to susceptible or hacked servers”, with different movies showing to come back from “family units, corresponding to child displays or Wi-Fi cameras, left unprotected or and not using a password.”
Political response
There was a robust political backlash to the case, with centre-right Forza Italia senator Licia Ronzulli, vp of the senate, slamming it on Monday as “one other disgusting and horrifying website that makes use of know-how to rape ladies.”
“‘Stripping’ a face, a physique, a life, with out consent utilizing synthetic intelligence isn’t leisure, it is digital rape,” Ronzulli assaults, including: “If earlier than, one may solely categorical outrage over all this, if earlier than, reporting was only a formality as a result of these accountable bought away with it, now, due to our legislation introducing the crime of deepfake, they may pay with as much as 5 years in jail.”
Senators Raffaella Paita, chief of the centrist Italia Viva group within the senate, and Daniela Sbrollini, additionally of Italia Viva and chief of the Femicide Commission, blasted it as “unacceptable violence.” Â
Mia Moglie and Phica
The investigation into the pictures allegedly revealed on SocialMediaGirls.com follows current controversies in Italy over a sexist Facebook group referred to as Mia Moglie (My Wife), the place customers shared personal pictures of ladies with out their consent, and an Italian-run web site referred to as Phica, a play on the Italian slang for vagina, which featured express, doctored pictures of well-known ladies.
Among the ladies featured on the Phica platform was Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who mentioned she was “disgusted” by the positioning and referred to as for these accountable to be punished “with the utmost firmness”.
Following a public outcry in Italy, each Mia Moglie and Phica had been closed down inside days of one another.
The case of SocialMediaGirls is barely totally different, Il Post experiences, as a result of it’s a website with customers from everywhere in the world, not simply Italy, and it’s tougher to hint the homeowners.
According to Corriere della Sera, the web site area has been lively for greater than 11 years and options “a configuration typical of platforms that prioritise anonymity.”
Photo Francesca Barra Instagram
