Sexually Explicit Deepfake Sites Target 100-Plus Politicians in Europe
Sexually Explicit Deepfake Sites Target 100-Plus Politicians in Europe
色情深度伪造网站盯上欧洲百余名政客
Almost 150 politicians across Europe have been included on harmful deepfake pornography websites over the last few years, according to new research seen by WIRED. Some of the politicians, who are overwhelmingly women, have had their likeness included in explicit videos, while others have names and photos listed in disturbing database-like entries that can link to deepfake creation tools. 根据《连线》（WIRED）杂志看到的一项最新研究，过去几年里，欧洲各地有近 150 名政客被列入有害的深度伪造（Deepfake）色情网站。这些政客绝大多数为女性，她们的肖像被用于制作露骨视频，还有一些人的姓名和照片被列入令人不安的数据库式条目中，并链接到深度伪造制作工具。
Analysis of around 160 domains that host deepfake abuse and other nonconsensual sexual content, by researcher Benjamin Shultz, has found that at least 138 women members of parliament (MPs) from 22 European Union countries have appeared or been mentioned on the sites. In contrast, only nine male MPs were referenced in any way. By Shultz’s calculations, it is 33 times more likely for women MPs to be targeted by deepfake ecosystems. 研究员本杰明·舒尔茨（Benjamin Shultz）对约 160 个托管深度伪造滥用内容及其他非自愿性内容的域名进行了分析，发现来自欧盟 22 个国家的至少 138 名女性议员出现在这些网站上或被提及。相比之下，仅有 9 名男性议员受到波及。据舒尔茨计算，女性议员成为深度伪造生态系统攻击目标的可能性是男性的 33 倍。
“Deepfake porn is part of a much bigger trend of online hate and intimidation against women and female politicians,” says Suzanne Kröger, a Dutch member of parliament with the Progressive Netherlands group, who was impacted. Kröger, who expressed anger at what the research uncovered, says the findings are “really deeply disturbing” and help to reveal the scale of abuse. “We are politicians, we have a platform and speak out,” Kröger says. “But meanwhile, there are millions of women victims of these criminal acts.” “深度伪造色情内容是针对女性和女性政客的网络仇恨与恐吓这一更大趋势的一部分，”受此影响的荷兰进步党议员苏珊娜·克罗格（Suzanne Kröger）表示。克罗格对研究揭露的事实感到愤怒，称这些发现“确实令人深感不安”，并有助于揭示滥用行为的规模。“我们是政客，我们有发声的平台，”克罗格说，“但与此同时，还有数百万女性是这些犯罪行为的受害者。”
The research, which has been published by German digital democracy think tank Agora Digitale Transformation, focuses on national members of parliament from all 27 countries in the European Union. Shultz, a fellow at Agora and the lead researcher at the American Sunlight Project, compiled the details of more than 5,800 members of parliaments across Europe in July and then used custom search engines to find where they appeared across the deepfake websites. (The research does not include members of the European Parliament). 这项由德国数字民主智库“Agora Digitale Transformation”发布的研究，重点关注欧盟全部 27 个国家的国家议会议员。作为 Agora 的研究员及美国“阳光计划”（Sunlight Project）的首席研究员，舒尔茨在 7 月份整理了欧洲 5800 多名议员的详细信息，随后利用定制搜索引擎查找他们在深度伪造网站上的出现情况。（该研究不包括欧洲议会议员）。
Politicians from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France appeared on the websites the most, according to the findings, and the more senior a politician is, the more likely they were to be targeted. Shultz alerted all of the MPs individually and provided guidance on how the content may be removed. The websites also include depictions of celebrities, journalists, and other public figures, he says. WIRED is not naming the websites in order to not drive further attention to the abusive images. 研究结果显示，来自德国、荷兰、意大利和法国的政客在这些网站上出现的频率最高，且政客的职位越高，被盯上的可能性就越大。舒尔茨已逐一通知了这些议员，并提供了删除相关内容的指导。他表示，这些网站还包含名人、记者和其他公众人物的图像。为了避免给这些滥用图像带来更多关注，《连线》杂志未公布这些网站的名称。
Multiple researchers and lawmakers say that while politicians have been targeted with deepfakes for years, it can damage democratic practices and create chilling effects that may stop women and girls from becoming public figures. “This discourages women from taking office in the first place and also crowds these women out of public life,” Shultz says. “There’s so much evidence to support that this does real psychological damage. This also does reputational damage for the future if they want to fade out of politics and have another career.” 多位研究人员和立法者表示，尽管政客多年来一直受到深度伪造的攻击，但这会损害民主实践，并产生寒蝉效应，可能阻碍女性和女孩成为公众人物。“这首先会挫伤女性参政的积极性，也会将她们挤出公共生活，”舒尔茨说，“有大量证据表明，这会造成真正的心理伤害。如果她们未来想退出政坛从事其他职业，这也会造成声誉损害。”
“Deepfake videos are used to intimidate politicians but also to belittle women,” says Sarah Dobbe, a Dutch Socialist Party MP, who was impacted. “It is very important that if a woman or girl is victimized in this way, she can get direct support if needed, and that the content is removed quickly.” “深度伪造视频不仅被用来恐吓政客，也被用来贬低女性，”受此影响的荷兰社会党议员萨拉·多贝（Sarah Dobbe）说，“如果女性或女孩以这种方式受害，她能够获得必要的直接支持，并且相关内容能被迅速删除，这一点非常重要。”
Across the sites he monitored, Shultz categorized multiple categories of abusive content or behavior. His results include instances where MPs appeared in content that was actively being hosted by the sites, indexed results where content had been removed, and also a number of profiles and “gateways” where potentially new content could be created. 在监测的网站中，舒尔茨将滥用内容或行为分为了多个类别。他的研究结果包括：议员出现在网站主动托管的内容中；内容虽已被删除但仍存在索引结果；以及大量可创建潜在新内容的个人资料和“入口”。
Multiple websites hosted pages that include the names of MPs, official photos, and in some cases their social media profiles or personal information. Some included sections “rating” the women’s bodies, Shultz’s report says. Often next to these MP biographies were links to so-called nudifier apps or the websites’ own tools that claimed to digitally undress people. “It has all the images, all the information, and a direct link to the tool, and in three clicks you can generate,” Shultz says. “That’s just as bad as actually hosting the content.” 多家网站托管的页面包含了议员的姓名、官方照片，在某些情况下还包括她们的社交媒体资料或个人信息。舒尔茨的报告称，一些网站甚至设有“评价”女性身体的板块。在这些议员简介旁边，通常会有指向所谓“脱衣”应用程序的链接，或是网站自称能进行数字脱衣的工具。“它拥有所有的图像、所有的信息，还有一个直接指向工具的链接，点击三次就能生成，”舒尔茨说，“这与直接托管这些内容一样恶劣。”
Since AI-created deepfakes first emerged at the end of 2017, the underlying technology to produce them has become much more accessible, and the output of the tools has become more realistic. Over time, millions of nonconsensual AI images and videos have been created, mostly by men and boys, and are often used to harass, intimidate, or blackmail women and girls, including at almost 100 schools around the world. 自 2017 年底人工智能深度伪造技术首次出现以来，其底层制作技术变得越来越容易获取，工具的输出效果也愈发逼真。随着时间的推移，数以百万计的非自愿 AI 图像和视频被制作出来，制作者大多为男性和男孩，这些内容常被用于骚扰、恐吓或勒索女性和女孩，甚至波及全球近 100 所学校。
“These platforms are designed to run like businesses,” says Henry Ajder, an AI adviser and deepfake expert who has been tracking the ecosystem since 2018. He says that while it is not surprising that politicians are being targeted in this way, the findings are helpful for officials in Europe to understand the severity of the issue. “The whole infrastructure is set up to do this at scale with ease,” he says. “这些平台的设计初衷就是像企业一样运营，”自 2018 年以来一直追踪该生态系统的 AI 顾问兼深度伪造专家亨利·阿杰德（Henry Ajder）表示。他说，虽然政客以这种方式成为目标并不令人意外，但这些发现有助于欧洲官员了解问题的严重性。“整个基础设施的建立就是为了轻松地大规模进行此类活动，”他说。
In general, lawmakers have been slow to introduce legislation to tackle the growing array of harms caused by deepfakes. However, in recent months, some laws have started to be introduced. Both the UK and EU are planning bans on nudify services, while under the US Take It Down Act, at least two major deepfake websites publishing thousands of images and videos of celebrities have been taken offline. Reporting by journalists unmasking those behind the websites has also led to major sites being taken offline. Ahead of this story being published, WIRED found that at least half a dozen of the domains that appear in the research have recently been removed from the web—reducing the total number of depictions of the European MPs. 总体而言，立法者在引入立法以应对深度伪造带来的日益严重的危害方面进展缓慢。然而，近几个月来，一些法律已开始出台。英国和欧盟都在计划禁止“脱衣”服务，而在美国的《删除法案》（Take It Down Act）下，至少有两个发布数千张名人图像和视频的主要深度伪造网站已被下线。记者揭露网站幕后黑手的报道也促使一些大型网站被关闭。在本文发表前，《连线》发现研究中提到的至少六个域名最近已从网络上移除，从而减少了欧洲议员相关图像的总数。
Shultz, who is also researching the number of depictions of UK and US politicians, previously analyzed how many US senators and members of Congress appeared on deepfake sites in 2024. After the websites were taken down, Shultz says, there has been a “significant decrease” in the number of depictions of those Americans. 舒尔茨目前也在研究英国和美国政客的受害情况，他此前曾分析过 2024 年有多少美国参议员和国会议员出现在深度伪造网站上。舒尔茨表示，在这些网站被取缔后，相关美国政客的图像数量出现了“显著下降”。