Popular selling platform eBay was forced to ban numerous sellers and remove hundreds of AI-generated nude photos of at least 40 celebrities, including Margot Robbie, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Aniston and many more.
Forbes reported the listings on the platform, with one seller reportedly offering over 400 items, including edited explicit images, for less than $7.
eBay allows users to sell items that depict nudity as long as they are listed in the Art and Collectibles categories. However, the policy on adult articles states that “AI-generated or photoshopped nude or sexually suggestive images of public figures” are prohibited.
Spokeswoman Trina Somera told the publication that eBay uses a mix of “AI technology, professionally trained eBay investigators and marketplace searches” to detect banned items.
“Listings containing AI-generated or Photoshopped adult celebrity images that violate eBay policies will be blocked or removed. Users found attempting to offer banned items may face consequences up to and including a permanent ban,” Somera added.
Getty Images
This isn't the first time celebrities have been targeted with problematic AI-generated images. Podcaster Bobbi Althoff was recently seen in a vulgar deepfake video.
Additionally, a study by Glamour, Rape Crisis England & Wales and Refuge found that 91 percent of respondents believe deepfaking poses a threat to women's safety, compared to 40 percent of respondents who fear image-based sexual abuse – called “revenge porn.”
Emma Pickering, head of technology-enabled abuse and economic empowerment at Refuge, said: “Technology-enabled abuse can often be more insidious and harder to detect than other forms of domestic violence, but it is equally based on coercive control. The rate at which this is happening.” The type of crime, which includes deep faking and other forms of intimate image abuse, that is now affecting women en masse is truly alarming.
“There is very little education about digital consent and this type of domestic violence, so we must raise the alarm and act now as these forms of abuse affect women at unprecedented levels. As new technologies evolve and become cheaper and more accessible.” “Perpetrators are arming themselves with new technological weapons to harm women.”
Indy100 has reached out to eBay for comment
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