New ‘x-ray vision’ apps launch following removal of original DeepNude
You’d need to have been living under a digital rock to miss the uproar about the DeepNude app launched briefly earlier this…
Coverage dossier
Active
Image-based abuse: tracking the law, the tech, and the gap between them
Eight years of coverage tracking image-based sexual abuse from the DeepNude app's brief viral moment through the nudify industry's current expansion, mapping the full arc from early legislative scrambling to the UK's Criminal Justice Act provisions, South Korea's viewing ban, Australia's first record fine, and the Take It Down Act's initial prosecutions. The through-line across all 46 entries is a structural lag: law chases technology, enforcement chases law, and operators like ClothOff route around both while Grok ships a "spicy" mode and MrDeepFakes quietly finds a successor. Follow this thread for coverage that treats enforcement outcomes and platform behavior as the actual test of progress, not the press releases.
Companion to Safety
Latest development
‘Crossing the Rubicon’: UK wants device-level age verification for sharing nudes
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Apple and Google until September 2026 to implement device-level nudity-blocking and age verification, threatening legislation and criminal liability for non-compliance.
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Most loved in this thread
- 107 votes
DeepNude app shuts down after going viral – but deepfake tech isn’t going away
34 votesA deepfake ‘x-ray vision’ app that algorithmically undressed photos of women was taken down by its creator last week. Users of the…
Concerns over ‘one-click’ deepfake porn videos as extortion scams on the rise
21 votesThe deeply troubling capabilities of deepfake porn video technology have been highlighted by the launch of a new artificial intelligence (AI) app,…
Deepfake porn fears: AI-generated faces as realistic as real faces, research finds
20 votesResearchers studying images of faces created by artificial intelligence (AI) have called for new guidelines in the face of the potential misuse…
Dated ledger
Earlier developments
June 2026
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News
Two men charged under Take It Down Act as US deepfake law finally bites
Two men face federal charges under the Take It Down Act in what appear to be the first prosecutions under the US deepfake law, with one accused of posting over 360 albums of non-consensual…
November 2025
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News
Pornhub says uploaded content isn’t used for training generative AI, despite terms seemingly allowing it
Pornhub told SEXTECHGUIDE it doesn't use uploaded content for generative AI training, despite terms of service wording that appears to permit exactly that.
September 2025
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News
Man hit with record AUD $343,000 fine for posting deepfake porn in Australia
Anthony Rotondo was fined AUD $343,000 by Australia's Federal Court for posting non-consensual deepfake porn on MrDeepFakes, the country's first major penalty under its Online Safety Act.
August 2025
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News
Grok’s ‘spicy’ AI video tool is already controversial (obviously)
xAI's Grok Imagine launched with a 'spicy' mode that can generate topless deepfakes of real people including Taylor Swift, raising immediate legal and consent concerns.
July 2025
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News
Clothoff deepfake app expands despite porn crackdown, whistleblower says
Whistleblower tells Der Spiegel that AI nudify app Clothoff owns at least ten deepfake platforms and is pushing a $3.5 million expansion into Europe, targeting men aged 16–35 via Telegram, Reddit, and 4chan.
June 2025
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News
Australia seeks record fine in first deepfake porn case as global crackdown intensifies
Australia's eSafety Commissioner is seeking a record AUD $450,000 fine against Anthony Rotondo in the country's first deepfake porn prosecution, using Mr Deepfakes as the test case for whether financial penalties can deter non-consensual…
May 2025
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News
Huge deepfake porn site ‘Mr Deepfakes’ has shut down and ‘will not be relaunching’
Mr Deepfakes, once the world's largest deepfake porn platform with 13 million monthly visitors, has shut down permanently, citing a critical service provider termination and data loss.
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News
Take It Down Act: Sharing non-consensual deepfake porn to become illegal in the US
The Take It Down Act passed US Congress on April 28, 2025, criminalizing non-consensual deepfake porn sharing and requiring platforms to remove flagged content within 48 hours.
February 2025
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News
Deepfake porn app claims to work with AI abuse victim organization, provides no evidence
Deepfake nudification app ClothOff claimed to fund AI abuse victims via a supposed nonprofit, ASU Label, which has no verifiable registration, no privacy policy, and a website built largely on AI-generated content.
January 2025
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News
UK deepfake law proposes up to two years in prison for porn creators
The UK's Crime and Policing Bill will criminalize creating non-consensual deepfake porn and installing equipment to do so, carrying penalties of up to two years in prison.
December 2024
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News
Deepfake porn guides easily accessible via search engines, despite crackdown
Despite pledges to demote deepfake porn, Google, Bing, and Yahoo still surface tutorials and nudify app guides, undermining their own stated crackdowns.
November 2024
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News
‘Digital condom’ app blocks your lover’s phone camera and mic
Billy Boy's Camdom app syncs phones to block cameras and microphones during sex, raising real questions about whether it prevents non-consensual recording or mainly sells condoms.
September 2024
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News
Watching deepfake porn will be illegal in South Korea, amid ‘digital sex crime epidemic’
South Korea passed a bill criminalizing the viewing and possession of sexually explicit deepfakes, carrying up to three years in jail and fines of 30 million won ($22,600).
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News
Microsoft hooks up with StopNCII to tackle non-consensual deepfakes on Bing
Microsoft has joined the StopNCII hash-matching platform to detect and remove non-consensual deepfake images from Bing search results, joining TikTok, Pornhub, and Meta among its signed-up partners.
August 2024
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News
16 AI porn generator sites sued in US ‘nudify’ lawsuit
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has sued 16 'nudify' AI sites for generating non-consensual deepfake porn, seeking shutdowns, injunctions, and civil penalties.
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News
Google’s anti-deepfake tools for Search are getting better at hiding results and removing images
Google updated Search to filter explicit deepfake results and remove duplicate images automatically when a removal request is granted, though promoted ads for AI 'undresser' apps still appeared post-launch.
May 2024
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News
Google is cracking down on deepfake porn via Search throttling and advert bans
Google banned Google Ads from promoting deepfake porn and throttled its search visibility, with two major deepfake porn sites seeing up to 25% less search traffic in early May 2024.
April 2024
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News
Creating non-consensual deepfakes to be made illegal in England and Wales, but there are still gray areas
England and Wales will criminalize the creation of non-consensual deepfake porn under a criminal justice bill amendment, though prosecution requires proof of malicious intent.
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News
‘Sending a message’: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sues over deepfake porn
Italian PM Giorgia Meloni is suing two men for €100,000 over deepfake porn videos uploaded in 2022, in a case that could set a legal precedent in Italy.
November 2023
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News
US plans to introduce watermark rules for AI images and videos
President Biden's executive order directs federal agencies to develop watermarking standards for AI-generated content, a move with direct implications for identifying deepfake porn.
September 2023
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News
‘A positive step’: Pornhub’s ethical drive continues with revenge porn crackdown
Aylo has partnered with StopNCII.org to flag and remove non-consensual intimate images from Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube using hash-matching technology previously deployed with Facebook and TikTok.
May 2023
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News
‘Irrevocable harm’: US bill would criminalize sharing non-consensual deepfake porn
US Congressman Joe Morelle introduced the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act in May 2023, which would criminalize sharing non-consensual deepfake porn and open creators to civil lawsuits.
April 2023
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News
‘Shut it all down’: AI backlash gains traction with support from industry leaders
The Future of Life Institute's open letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development beyond GPT-4 drew over 10,000 verified signatures, with deepfake porn and AI image generators among the harms cited.
December 2022
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News
UK anti-revenge porn app launching March ’23, plus Bumble and TikTok sign-up to StopNCII
TikTok and Bumble joined StopNCII's hash-based non-consensual image removal network, while UK charity SWGfL prepares to launch evidence-logging app Minerva in March 2023.
November 2022
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News
Sharing deepfake porn without consent will be illegal in UK
England and Wales will criminalize sharing deepfake porn without consent under the Online Safety Bill, removing the requirement to prove intent to cause harm.
October 2022
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News
‘Consent not required’: The worrying rise of MrDeepFakes
MrDeepFakes, a site with 13 million monthly visitors and 20,000 non-consensual celebrity deepfake videos, was profiled in a BBC documentary whose anonymous founder argued consent 'is not required.'
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News
India blocks Pornhub and Brazzers in ‘obscene material’ crackdown
India's MeitY ordered ISPs to block 67 porn sites including Pornhub, Brazzers, and Chaturbate, bringing the country's total banned adult sites to 857.
August 2022
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News
‘Collector culture’ exposed: Reddit is a rampant market for non-consensual nude photos
A BBC investigation found tens of thousands of Reddit users trading non-consensual nude photos alongside victims' personal details, with Reddit removing 88,000 such images in 2021 but failing to stop banned moderators from returning.
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News
Scam loan apps sent fake nude photos to victims’ family members
Scam loan apps in Mexico sent AI-faked nude images of victims to their family members as part of doxxing campaigns, with 35 of 94 flagged apps still available on Google Play.
March 2022
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Feature
Pam & Tommy to A$AP Rocky: the changing face of the celebrity sex tape
From the Pamela Anderson tape to A$AP Rocky, a decade-spanning look at how celebrity sex tapes shifted from career-destroying scandals to shrug-worthy footnotes, with women still bearing most of the damage.
February 2022
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News
Deepfake porn fears: AI-generated faces as realistic as real faces, research finds
Researchers at Lancaster University and UC Berkeley found participants correctly identified AI-generated faces only 48.2% of the time, prompting calls for ethics guidelines to prevent deepfake abuse.
January 2022
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Guide
Sextech decoded: A deep dive into consent
A consent guide covering smart sex toys, dating apps, deepfakes, and consent apps explains where sextech enables or undermines informed, ongoing agreement between users.
December 2021
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News
Hundreds of women tricked into making porn for GirlsDoPorn win video rights
A San Diego judge granted 402 women ownership rights over videos made under false pretenses for GirlsDoPorn, enabling DMCA takedowns and ordering $18 million in restitution.
November 2021
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News
Taiwan’s considering prison sentences of up to 7 years for deepfake porn crimes
Taiwan's Ministry of Justice proposed sentences of up to seven years for producing or distributing deepfake porn, following the arrest of a YouTuber who allegedly made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling faked celebrity…
September 2021
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News
Concerns over ‘one-click’ deepfake porn videos as extortion scams on the rise
A new AI app enabling 'one-click' deepfake porn creation from a single photo is fueling extortion scams, with scammers harvesting Instagram images to blackmail victims.
August 2021
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News
‘Super committee’ to scrutinize UK government’s controversial Online Safety Bill
UK Parliament's 12-person Joint Committee on the Online Safety Bill, led by MP Damian Collins, begins line-by-line scrutiny of legislation that would let Ofcom fine and block platforms over harmful content.
June 2021
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News
Pornhub accused of being ‘criminal enterprise’ in lawsuit filed by women alleging exploitation
34 women sued MindGeek alleging Pornhub hosted non-consensual explicit videos, including content filmed when they were minors, describing the platform as a criminal enterprise.
December 2020
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Opinion
Pornhub has banned unverified uploads, but do the policy changes go far enough?
Pornhub banned unverified uploads and suspended all previously unverified content by December 14, 2020, after a New York Times exposé prompted Mastercard and Visa to cut payment processing.
May 2020
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News
South Korea declares deepfakes a ‘sex crime’ after rise in videos featuring K-pop stars
South Korea criminalized deepfake porn as a sex crime, carrying up to five years in prison or a $40,500 fine, after research found 25 percent of all porn deepfakes featured K-pop stars.
October 2019
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News
Deepfake porn is growing in popularity, as lawmakers scramble to keep up
Deeptrace found deepfake videos nearly doubled in seven months to 14,678, with 96% pornographic and almost all targeting women without consent, as California passed AB 740 to address it.
August 2019
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News
New ‘x-ray vision’ apps launch following removal of original DeepNude
Two DeepNude successor apps, DeepNude.to and NudifierApp, launched using the same non-consensual image-generation technology after the original's source code leaked online.
July 2019
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Opinion
DeepNude app shuts down after going viral – but deepfake tech isn’t going away
The $50 DeepNude app, which algorithmically stripped clothing from photos of women using GANs, shut down after going viral, but the underlying technology remains freely available.
June 2019
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News
UK to review laws around deepfake and revenge porn
The UK Law Commission will review laws on non-consensual intimate images from July 2019, covering deepfakes and cyber-flashing, with new legislation proposed by 2021.
May 2019
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News
Dev criticized for porn facial recognition algorithm says it was actually built by an ‘0ldsch00l hacker’
A viral tweet exposed a facial recognition tool matching performers in porn scenes to social media profiles, with the developer claiming he didn't build it and that it was designed to help revenge porn…
September 2018
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Opinion
Privacy-invading camera tech is a problem that authorities will always struggle to combat
Covert camera technology is cheap, widely available, and effectively untraceable, making upskirting, hidden toilet cameras, and deepfake porn nearly impossible for authorities to meaningfully combat.
