Pornhub Has Finally Banned Celebrity ‘Deep Fake’ Videos

13 February 2018, 11:26

Reddit and Twitter have also removed the controversial pornographic clips made using face-swap apps.

PornHub, Reddit and other major websites are making moves to ban the so-called 'deep fake' videos that have become popular over the last few weeks.

So, what is a 'deep fake' video?

For those unaware, 'deep fakes' use face-swap apps like 'Fake App' to make convincing porn featuring the images of women without their consent. Clips of Taylor Swift, Daisy Ridley, Gal Gadot and Scarlett Johansson superimposed onto adult performers have been gaining millions of views on porn sites while users and critics called for action.

This trend began around December 2017 with the first videos appearing in various Reddit groups dedicated to making face swaps. Now, Mashable reports that PornHub have stepped in to remove all 'deep fake' videos and that searches for the term on Monday (February 12th) revealed no available results. The site had previously told Motherboard that the videos violated its user policy and would be removed shortly.

Reddit and Twitter have also banned the clips, the former announcing an update to its rules covering "involuntary pornography".

This tech is also being used to alter movie scenes and even political speeches in online videos. The 'Fake App' has been downloaded well over 100,000 times at the time of writing.

What do you guys think? Has enough been done to deal with the problem of 'deep fakes'? Let us know in the Facebook comments.