EXCLUSIVE: San Francisco Sues 16 "Nude-ifying" Deepfake Sites, Exposing the Dark Underbelly of AI-Powered Objectification
San Francisco’s City Attorney David Chiu has taken aim at the most popular AI-powered deepfake websites, targeting 16 disgusting platforms that have been used to strip the dignity of countless women and girls, without their consent. The lawsuit alleges that these websites, which allow users to upload images of real people and digitally "undress" them using AI tools, have been visited a staggering 200 million times in just six months. That’s 1.33 million times per day, or 55,000 times per hour, or almost 1,000 times per minute. The sheer scale of this online exploitation is mind-boggling.
One of these nefarious websites, which has been anonymized to protect its operators (but not the victims), shamelessly advertises: "Why waste time taking her out on dates when you can just use [website name] to get her nudes?" The implication is clear: women are nothing more than objects for male pleasure.
The websites in question are accused of violating federal and state laws prohibiting revenge porn, deepfake porn, and child pornography, as well as California’s unfair competition law. The lawsuit seeks not only to shut down these disgusting platforms but also to impose civil penalties on their operators, permanently preventing them from creating future deepfakes. It’s a bold move to hold these perpetrators accountable for their destructive actions.
City Attorney David Chiu has called the investigation a "horrifying" expose of the darkest corners of the internet, warning that this is a "big, multi-faceted problem" that must be solved ASAP. The question remains: what will it take for us to finally address the objectification and exploitation of women and girls online?
**The lawsuit is a small step towards justice, but it’s clear that more needs to be done to protect the vulnerable and hold accountable those who perpetuate this online abuse.
