A rapidly spreading form of sexual exploitation hit home for three people in Florida, when they discovered surreal nude photos of themselves posted on the internet, according to investigators.
In each case, the images were so called deepfakes, a term for surprisingly real looking forgeries, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in an April 23 news release. Hillsborough County is home to Tampa.
“The computer-generated images were made from the original clothed images of the victims posted on social media platforms,” the sheriff’s office reports.
“The software utilized to create the nude images took the victims’ original photos and removed the victims’ clothing.”
Identities of the victims were not released, but the three adults reported finding the photos online March 13, officials said.
Detectives have linked the photos to an 18-year-old man, Sammarth Gautam, who was arrested April 22 by the Lakeland Police Department in Polk County, officials said.
He faces 16 counts of promotion of an altered sexual depiction without consent, officials said.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister called the acts “despicable” and noted the victims’ “privacy was disgustingly violated.”
Details of how the images were created and where they were posted were not released.
Such images can be created via apps that will “nudify” people by digitally removing clothing from photos for a fee, according to a March 25 report in WIRED. Among those victimized have been celebrities like Taylor Swift.
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