Domestic Violence Advisory

A new form of technology abuse has recently emerged that puts domestic violence victims at risk. Fake videos, called ‘deepfakes’, manipulate video and audio so that individuals appear doing and saying things they never did or said. Most commonly, women are seamlessly superimposed into pornographic videos. This means domestic violence victims are now at greater risk of revenge porn, even though no actual video exists. With deepfakes, an abusive partner can now manufacture a revenge porn video using photos of the victim’s face.

It is critical that we understand and prepare for deepfake abuse before it becomes widespread. Toward that end, a Domestic Violence Deepfake Advisory has been created to inform advocates and attorneys about how to respond to, and in some cases prevent, deepfake abuse in California.