Hyderabad: A girl from Mumbai approached the police for help after she found a morphed nude picture of herself doing the rounds on the internet. A stalker took one of her pictures, morphed it using the banned DeepNude application, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to create fake nude pictures of the subject, and used it as a weapon to harass her.
Created by Estonian developers, DeepNude was pulled down after it faced a global backlash. Its threat continues to persist as those who have the app are likely to misuse it.
While fake pornography was previously dominated by Photoshop, with the advancement of technology and AI, it is becoming easier to create nudes out of still pictures
A case was reported in Singapore after a 27-year-old woman found a false nude of herself featured in sex forums. A one-year-old selfie of hers was obtained from social media and used to generate the doctored image. She discovered that she was only one of the many such victims, a Singapore newspaper reported.
Even its developers admitted that the application is a threat. “We created this project for user entertainment. Despite the safety measures we’ve adopted, the possibility that users will misuse it is still fairly high. The world is not ready for DeepNude,” its developers said in a statement.
Cyberlaw expert Dr Pavan Duggal said, “Such cases are dealt with under Sections 67 and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Section 67 has lost its potency now that the offences covered under it have been made bailable. Section 67(A), which is still non-bailable, has seen not a single conviction in the past 10 years. Society and government both consider complainants themselves to be participants in cyber crime cases. Online obscenity needs to be prioritised by the police department.”
“Although the app is no more available, its API (Application Programming Interface) is still widely available on the internet. Any output from this app comes under the ambit of Sections 67 and 67(A). While Indian law allows downloading such apps and watching pornographic videos, its distribution amounts to an offence.”
Mr P. Narendra Reddy of the Hyderabad cyber crime cell said, “Every year, we witness an increasing number of offences involving fake profiles, online harassment, and stalking. Offenders are prosecuted under the IT Act, 2000. However, the city has not yet witnessed any crime involving DeepNude.”
