A commercial spin-off project of the anti-piracy company Takedown Piracy promises quick help to victims of revenge porn and involuntary appearances in so-called deepfakes. Using state-of-the-art technologies, photos and videos are to be provided with a digital fingerprint that automatically detects, warns and legally documents the publication of questionable materials.
Operation Minerva is a subsidiary of the organization Takedown Piracy, which is widely unpopular among users and file sharers and has made a name for itself in the fight against pirated content. Now the organization also wants to help victims of revenge porn and deepfakes. According to the company, anyone can use the services of Operation Minerva.
Revenge Porn largely disappeared from mainstream offerings
Revenge pornography has become a punishable offense in many states. Ex-lovers and ex-partners publish erotic or sexual images of the former partner without his or her knowledge and consent on the Internet in order to humiliate the partner m and sometimes deliberately embarrass him or her socially. Due to the rapid distribution of erotic content, once published pictures and videos can hardly be erased from the net. With AreYouUp, MyEx.com and Pinkmeth, which had been active on the Darknet for years, websites had been created where such pictures and videos were shared and published with the explicit aim of seriously harming the usually unwitting and always unwilling victim. In some cases, shitstorms and mail campaigns were coordinated that was specifically geared to the social and professional environment of the victims. All of the portals mentioned have now been closed, partly due to FBI investigations, criminal and civil criminal proceedings. The large image databases and search engines have long since reacted. Google and Bing ban revenge porn as well as the big porn providers like xHamster, PornHub and Imagefap.
The Deepfake legal grey area: Do we need new laws?
On the other hand, the trend towards Deepfakes that has emerged in the last two years has not yet been clearly addressed, at least legally. The possibility of incorporating people’s faces into porn films and thus creating porn scenes with unknowing and unwilling people, some of which appear frighteningly real, poses new problems for the Internet and, in particular, for portals that depend heavily on user uploads. Although celebrities and Hollywood stars have so far been the main victims of this technology, which is still in its infancy, the danger is relatively obvious that anyone could make anyone appear in porn scenes. The big gateways have responded and sometimes banned deepfake contents, but the legal situation is much more difficult. The personal right is indeed violated, but in many countries, the right to freedom of expression and the freedom of art are also applicable. To what extent deepfake pornography can refer to artistic freedom and fair use may be questionable, but there is nevertheless a need for clarity from the legislator.
In any case, Operation Minerva does not want to wait any longer; after all, many injured parties are affected immediately and oftentimes extensively. From damage to their reputation and the loss of their job to psychological and social damages, victims of Deepfakes have to reckon with extensive and sometimes massive consequences for their lives.
The white knight is an aggressive lobby group
Nate Glass is CEO of Takedown Piracy, a company that could certainly use positive publicity, because millions of users are prosecuted for illegal pirated copies of media content, sometimes very aggressively under civil law. A socio-politically relevant project such as the fight against revenge pornography can only be helpful. Glass also sees Operation Minerva as a good deed: »We are pleased to present Operation Minerva. [It is] a much-needed service developed to combat the growing scourge of Deepfakes and revenge porn. The sophistication of computer software and imaging tools have given those with criminal intent a vehicle to spread lies, and otherwise, assassinate the character of any person. Operation Minerva is designed to both detect, and stop the spread of doctored videos, or content published without consent, immediately.«
Glass still insists on the need for legislators to act. Until now, its organization has only been able to combat deepfakes on the basis of copyright infringement. The alteration and embedded use of a person’s face in other contexts is legally grey area. »Part of the problem has been that no one has been able to go after Deepfake videos because altering someone’s image isn’t necessarily illegal. But because we also represent the copyright holders for content often altered by these violators, we are able to go after the criminals for copyright infringement, thus Operation Minerva is ideal for celebrities, politicians, professional athletes, artists and many others in the public eye.«
Digital watermarks help victims of revenge porn and deepfakes
Once content is digitally watermarked, Operation Minerva can track and monitor it on over 80 tube pages and free porn pages. A single notification is enough to make the content trackable and erasable on all these sites.
Adam Dodge, Laura’s House employee, also praised the initiative against Deepfake and Revenge Porn: »This is an opportunity for victims of nonconsensual pornography and deepfake abuse to use sophisticated tools to protect themselves, which is a critical advantage previously unavailable to our clients.«
More information on the Operation Minerva project can be found here.