Deepfakes and Domestic Violence: Perpetrating Intimate Partner Abuse Using Video Technology

ABSTRACT Technology-facilitated abuse is becoming an increasingly standard component of domestic violence, having proliferated in recent decades due to an increased use of smart phones and the Internet. While there are a variety of ways that videos and other content can be altered to misrepresent people and events, the use of deepfake technology is increasing in popularity because users can create high-quality, realistic visuals and manipulate video and audio to manufacture situations. Deepfake technology is widely available to everyone, and there are online communities where people discuss, and sometimes, create, non-consensual sexual deepfakes to be used for malicious purposes. Deepfake technology poses significant risk for victims of domestic violence because perpetrators can use deepfakes to threaten, blackmail, and abuse victims. Research on the use of deepfakes as a means of technology-facilitated image-based sexual abuse is in its infancy. Therefore, this policy analysis aims to add to the criminological literature on the subject by exploring the intersection of deepfake technology and domestic abuse to bring further attention to the issue and to help guide future policy, accounting for privacy issues, criminal and civil litigation, and the role that law enforcement officials and domestic violence advocates play in prevention.