Twitch starts to address 'deepfake porn', and the first thing to go is that phrase
As the world's leading streaming platform Twitch continues to grow, so do the problems it encounters with various types of bad behaviour. 2022 was probably the most dramatic year in Twitch's history(opens in new tab), and 2023 began with another breed of deeply gross scandal: The popular streamer Atrioc visited a so-called deepfake website live on-stream, which featured explicit and faked imagery of women streamers including Maya Higa and Pokimane.
Atrioc subsequently apologised(opens in new tab) and stepped back from streaming for a while, but the damage was done and the distress it caused those streamers featured on the website was public and clear to see. Twitch has now outlined how it plans to address «deepfake porn» incidents(opens in new tab), both on and off the platform, and starts by addressing the term itself.
The phrase “deepfake porn” has acquired wide currency, but following advice from experts including Danielle Keats Citron (law professor and VP of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative) and the UK Revenge Porn Helpline, Twitch will refer to this material as «synthetic non-consensual exploitative images» or «synthetic NCEI.» The reasoning goes as follows:
«Calling synthetic NCEI content “pornography” is incorrect. Porn (while prohibited on Twitch) should be consensual and should feature people who know they’re taking part in activities that others are going to see. That’s not what’s happening here, and why it’s important we reinforce unequivocally that this content is created without consent.»
This is incidentally somewhat similar to what's currently happening with the term «revenge porn,» which experts in the field of abuse have taken issue with: Not least because «revenge» implies that the victim did
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