You’re probably familiar with the Tom Cruise deepfake videos, the numerous celebrities’ faces being swapped and placed onto other people’s bodies for comedy, or videos that appear to show well-known politicians saying something outlandish to their opponent. The technology of deepfakes has opened up a whole new world of possibility beyond the scope of what photoshop could ever do, and it is not all good news. In fact, the proliferation of deepfakes online today should have us all concerned. While there are many ways deepfakes can be used ethically with boundaries and accountability, the fact that there are no regulations in place has allowed for a deeply troubling and dangerous landscape where anyone can become a victim.
An eye-opening documentary that has been described as “horrifying” (Daily Beast) and “urgent” (Rolling Stone) is showing us how deepfakes are being used to create pornography, where victims are everyday people. ‘Another Body’ from director Sophie Compton is a timely signal to the world about an issue that is only going to get worse if nothing is change is not made.
According to data shared by the film’s producers, deepfakes are doubling online every six months, and researchers predict there will be over 5.2 million in 2024. 90% of deepfakes are non-consensual porn of women, and as the film shows, it could literally be any woman who has an image online somewhere that can be taken and used for pornography.
‘Another Body’ follows a college student’s search for answers and justice after she discovers deepfake pornography of herself circulating online. Through candid video diaries, synthetic media, and 2D and 3D animation, the film takes you into Taylor’s (not her real name) online and offline worlds, humanizing a vast social issue in a compelling personal story. Taylor dives headfirst into the underground world of deepfakes, and discovers a growing culture of men terrorizing women—influencers, classmates, friends.
Deepfake videos are fake, but their impacts are all too real. Most victims don’t know who their anonymous perpetrator is or how many people have seen these videos; so their lives shrink, their circle of trust gets tighter, their online presence smaller. This is what Amnesty International calls “the silencing effect.” And yet, deepfake porn remains legal in 48 US states and across the globe, and websites dedicated to this abuse are thriving. This film has an urgent activist intent: to call for legislation to tackle a problem that is spiraling out of control and galvanize efforts to rewrite the norms that govern the internet.
Wanting to get more insight into this world and how we as viewers can be part of pushing for change, we had the chance to speak with Sophie about ‘Another Body’, as well as the impact campaign and movement she and the film’s producers started called #MyImageMyChoice which amplifies the voices of intimate image abuse survivors.
How did the idea for this film initially come about?
My fellow Director Reuben was researching the Alt Right on 4chan and discovered this problem, and came to me to collaborate on telling this story. For me it was the perfect combination of storytelling and urgent social advocacy, and we built the film from there.
This is your debut as a feature documentary director. What was the process like for you, and what were the most challenging aspects of making this film?
We were incredibly lucky to find the support of many mentors, advisors, and bodies in the documentary industry, including our phenomenal producer Elizabeth Woodward, who created a team and production around us where Reuben and I could really focus on the investigative and creative work, and building the right support around our contributors, who took immense risks by sharing their stories. I know so many first time (or established) directors who struggle to get brilliant projects off the ground, or who are delayed for years by funding.
One of the most challenging aspects has been distributing this film in the midst of the collapse of the documentary bubble, where many Streamers and distributors are not supporting indie docs. Even though we have got great reviews and industry accolades, we have had to build the distribution of the film ourselves, piece by piece, and it’s been a rewarding but monumental effort that is not sustainable.
For those who are yet to see the film and still unfamiliar with the landscape, what is a deepfake, and how can AI be used in unethical ways to exploit a person’s likeness?
A deepfake is a video or image doctored so that one person’s face replaces the face of the person in the original content. And as with our story, 96% of all deepfakes are actually non-consensual sexual imagery of women. Taylor, our main character, finds that her face has been superimposed onto a porn actor’s body, creating videos that seem to depict her acting in porn. The danger is that with this technology you can make it seem like anybody has said or done anything on camera. The reality on the ground is that this is being mostly weaponized to shame, harass, and abuse women.
The AI phenomenon has been taken to another level with Deepfakes, and the ethical lines are so blurred. Why should everyone be horrified by this?
We actually think it’s really important to separate out the different types of AI technologies. There are some very scary sides to AI and how it might impact our society, mostly to do with really large-scale models like ChatGPT that have scraped millions of pieces of data without consent, which have the capacity to come up with their own prompts, and which are likely to be used by huge numbers of people.
We don’t think deepfake technology is intrinsically bad, but rather the way it is being used to violate consent. We use the technology in the film to protect Taylor’s identity, one of many possibly revolutionary and brilliant applications of the tech. Those deepfakes are generated by AI that is trained to do one specific purpose: replace Taylor’s real face in the film with the face of an actor, to keep Taylor safe.
All the data included has been captured, and can only be used, with everyone’s consent. What we need to address is the misuse of this technology, and the way tech companies are allowed to develop and exploit AI without legal accountability.
The central theme and stories being showcased have been described similar to a thriller, as well as an urgent topic by various media outlets. How have audiences reacted at screenings and festivals?
We released the film over halloween weekend in the US and it definitely worked as a digital horror film! We have heard gasps and tutting in audiences who can’t believe how little support Taylor gets. There have also been tears. It has been so powerful to hear how this film lands emotionally with women, in particular, and to hear from survivors of image-based sexual violence who say that at last they feel represented.
The women whose images are being exploited in the film are shown being so courageous in their fight. Can audiences draw from their stories in terms of being aware, or fighting back if they too are the victims of image exploitation?
Absolutely and this is one of the film’s core intentions. We want survivors of this to know that they are not alone, that what is happening to them is NOT their fault, and that includes people who do porn for a living and people who have shared sexual imagery consensually—the responsibility needs to lie on the shoulders of the person who violated their consent.
We want the film to show how important it is for people going through this to find community and solidarity and often that comes with speaking to other survivors. When Gibi spoke out publicly, she created a cascade of other people also sharing their experiences, and that validated so many different people’s pain. There is so much minimizing and victim-blaming around online abuse and every brave act of speaking, even if it’s just to one friend, helps to combat that shaming and silencing.
You are also a founding member of an important movement called #MyImageMyChoice. Can you tell us more about this and how people can get involved?
Please join us! #MyImageMyChoice is a cultural movement that we (the producers of ‘Another Body’) set up to tackle intimate image abuse. It began as a grassroots campaign to amplify the voices of survivors of image-based sexual violence, and grew into leading voice in the field, working with global press (ABC, The Guardian, Vogue and many more), governments (The White House, UK Law Commission), tech companies (Bumble, Adobe), and NGOs (The World Economic Forum, Reclaim), and 30+ survivors.
We are also focusing on calling on companies such as Google, Visa, Verizon to #BlockMrDeepfakes and the 3000+ sites dedicated to online gendered abuse, and stop enabling and profiting off this abuse. Please check out myimagemychoice.org for more info and ways to take action! You can also find survivor support, and survivors can access pathways to share their story.
How has the movement managed to create change so far through impact campaigns and screenings of ‘Another Body’?
It has been incredible to witness how much change a film, and the network of people we’ve met along the way, can have. We were recently invited to the White House with Taylor and Gibi, the main subjects of the film, as their testimonies were pivotal in ensuring the recent Executive Order on AI included provisions for deepfake porn. We are planning an event in Parliament at the end of January with MP Jess Phillipps, as well as private events for tech companies, and a campaign with college students. We have released petitions that have gained over 100k signatures and videos that have reached over a million people.
We’ve recently seen how Hollywood actors and writers fought hard to stop the industry from exploiting their work through the use of AI. And in your film we are seeing how anybody can become a victim if their image is online somewhere. What are some safeguarding tools you’d recommend, especially against the use of deepfakes in porn?
This is all about consent. We need to draw up new legal frameworks that protect people’s digital image and identity. We need laws across the world that to make non-consensual deepfake porn illegal, so that all women—actors, Youtubers, private citizens—have redress if this happens. We also need to ensure the industry has new laws addressing how people’s image is used in film. We need contracts that specify how someone’s data is used, and for how long. It should not be the
case that a studio could scan someone’s face and then use that forever without their consent. It should not be the case that when someone dies, their image can be manipulated in ways that might damage their reputation. This is all new, but it is not difficult to manage the use of AI in an ethical way, so we need to ensure the studios are forced to engage with proper consultation and thoughtful planning around this.
Documentaries have the power to change the world as well as individual lives. What impact do you hope ‘Another Body’ will have on audiences? And what kinds of questions do you want viewers, companies, leaders and organizations to be asking when it comes to the use of AI or technology that can digitally alter or exploit an image?
We hope it will bring home the human cost of non-consensual deepfake porn, and validate the voices of survivors who have been on the frontlines trying to tell people about the life-shattering impact this abuse can have. We hope it will help build a global movement around image-based sexual violence—we see this as the new, digital, frontier of the #metoo movement. We hope that growing movement helps us change how the internet is regulated. What I hope people will do right this second is go to our website, find TAKE ACTION, and send the email we have drafted for Google to tell them to take their responsibility as the internet’s biggest gatekeeper seriously!
You can watch ‘Another Body’ on Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime in the US. If you are outside the United States, click HERE to find out where you can stream the documentary or attend an in-person screening. To join the movement to push for accountability and regulations for deepfakes, head to #MyImageMyChoice to learn how you can take action.
