#video streaming app development company

[mobileappdevelopmentsolution]

 5 AI-Powered Big Data Use Cases in Video Streaming Apps

 As video streaming apps continue to grow in popularity, so does the amount of data these platforms consume. Keep your video streaming apps more interesting with the help of AI-Powered Big Data! Here are 5 examples of AI-powered Big Data use cases to improve the video streaming experience.

[webcluesinfotechstuff]

Developing an app like Netflix can bring many benefits, such as generating revenue through subscriptions, providing users with on-demand access to a vast library of movies and TV shows, and building brand recognition. However, developing a high-quality streaming app can be challenging, requiring expertise in UI/UX design, backend development, and cloud infrastructure. WebClues, a leading app development company, can help businesses build a robust, scalable, and feature-rich streaming app like Netflix. With years of experience in building streaming apps, WebClues can help businesses achieve their goals by providing end-to-end app development services, from ideation to launch and maintenance. Overall, partnering with WebClues can help businesses build a high-quality and scalable streaming app that meets the needs of today's tech-savvy consumers.

[christyrdiaz]

In the growing world of digital media, podcasts have emerged as a powerful and engaging form of content. Live podcast streaming software is crucial in delivering content to a global audience. 

Podcast streaming software refers to the technology that allows the distribution and consumption of podcasts over the Internet. It facilitates the seamless streaming or downloading of audio content, allowing users to explore various topics, genres, and creators. 

[oodlestechnologies123]

Many similar platforms have witnessed an increase in their users by up to 200%. This article explores what features make educational OTT platforms effective in their role as educational providers and how they benefit the masses in decreasing the literacy gap.

[techgropse1]

Are you looking to know the Cost to Build a Video Streaming App? Read this guide to know about this. We are explaining all the factors here.

[eshaswriting]

Video Streaming App Development Company Selection Tips

If you have been searching for a video streaming app development company to discuss your business requirements and ROI plans with, it can be a wise idea to know which people you can invest your time, trust, money, and energy in. After all, you cannot keep browsing the Internet and discussing your business plans with every video streaming app development company you like there, till you finally select one that can suit your needs and budget as closely as possible. It can be better to sieve some video streaming app development companies out, first, from the vast lot present on the Net, and then decide how many of them you can invest your time in, before taking the final decision of hiring the services of any one of them.

Here are some tips:

You can consider selecting a video streaming app development company that has experience to back its expertise, and vice versa.

Check the sort of work a video streaming app development company has been producing over the years. If you find its products inspiring, you can consider approaching it with your job. On the other hand, if you feel that it seems to be doing what every second video streaming app development company has been doing of late, and nothing very creative or exceptional, you can think of searching for another one that can interest you better.

Look at the clientele of any video streaming app development company that you want to consider as a recipient of your job. How long is the list? Where are these clients located? Have you seen, read, or heard about them before? Are they authentic? Are all of them saying the same thing, or praising the same attribute/s of the video streaming app development company? These are just a few of the questions that you can ask yourself, and see if you like the answers that you get.

Check how promptly and exactly a video streaming app development company responds to your email, text, or call. This can indicate their level of professionalism, and sincerity towards work.

Is the company seeming to spout technical jargon that seems next to impossible to follow? Does it seem to be taking pleasure in confusing people? You might rather want to communicate with a company that expresses and explains matters in simple words. There are some experts who can make even ‘rocket science’ seem simple to understand. It can be a wise move to work with the latter kind of people, who do not sell technology, but know technology thoroughly enough to harness it for coming up with the best ideas and products for you.

If you happen to communicate with a video streaming app development company, try to find out how their experts look at work. Are they more comfortable treading the beaten track, or are they enthusiastic about trying out various technology, tools, and ideas? Do they treat your project as just another lot of the same kind of work coming in, or as something unique, that can turn out to be something that surpasses most of the things that are in existence in its field? Which attitude do you like more?

These are just a few tips that you can keep in mind as you venture to hire the services of a video streaming app development company. There are, of course, several other factors that need to be taken into consideration, as well.

You are welcome to get in touch with us at Ascentspark Software. Ascentspark Software is a video streaming app development company.

[mobileappdevelopmentsolution]

Video Streaming App Development Company

Create captivating live streaming applications with us for the digital transition. Consagous Technologies is a video-streaming app development company that offers unmatched video-streaming app development services and solutions in California. We develop customer-focused video-streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. If you are looking for a video-streaming app development solution, Visit consagous.co

[oodlestechnologies]

[probablyasocialecologist]

Through time, we’ve seen a progressive narrowing of how we experience entertainment: from the collective cinema experience, to the family viewing of the television, to the even narrower audience of the streaming service and various video apps, and now the expectation is that we’ll strap a set of screens directly onto our faces to ensure we can’t share an experience with another person. The development is a worrying one, and illustrates how disconnected tech executives are from real life.

The leaders of the tech industry are not only separated by much of the public because their wealth, experience of the world, and exclusive lifestyles, but also seem to have stunted social lives, or at least a lack of insight into the social nature of regular humans. They think an ideal way of living is one where as much as possible is mediated through digital technology because they have a specific interest in the tools that made them rich and powerful, and continuing a process that put them in that position in the first place. And while people have been open to going along with their visions, it’s pretty clear there’s a growing frustration and even dissatisfaction with the world they’ve created. Doubling down on it seems like a bad idea.

[...]

Given that the Vision Pro will retail for $3499 and won’t launch until 2024, with an initial rollout limited to the United States, I think we have a unique ability to ensure this project fails. We’ve already seen how ridicule can take the hype out of a tech bubble, most recently with crypto and the metaverse, but a decade ago the same thing happened with Google’s attempt to make its Glass smart glasses happen. Instead, its users were termed “Glassholes” and the product was scaled back and sold as a niche enterprise tool.

[mariacallous]

A jury in December found that Google broke US antitrust laws through deals and billing rules that gave an unfair boost to its Google Play app store. On Thursday, a judge began laying out how Google could be forced to change its business as a penalty. The remedies under consideration could drive the most consequential shakeup ever to Google’s dominance over the Android universe.

Fortnite video game developer Epic Games, which beat Google in the trial that saw a jury declare the Play store an illegal monopoly, is demanding that federal judge James Donato ban Google from contracts that deter competition. Epic also wants Google to be forced to help competing stores list more apps, giving them a competitive boost. The changes could enable Epic to realize its long-held plan to increase revenue by processing in-game purchases in Fortnite and other titles without using Google’s payment system, and marketing games via its own app store.

Google contends that Epic’s demands would threaten its users’ security and impair the businesses of partners, including Android device makers and app developers. The search company is appealing the jury’s verdict, which could delay the rollout of any penalties for many years—or void them altogether. But Google over the past few years already has had to make some costly changes in Europe and Asia due to court losses and new laws affecting the Play store, and a trial with Epic is currently underway in Australia.

“I want to be clear: Google as an illegal monopolist will have to pay some penalties,” Donato told Epic and Google at a hearing in San Francisco on Thursday. He explained that Google’s loss requires him to pry open the company’s grip on the Android ecosystem in a way that ends Google’s illegal monopoly and also removes its ill-gotten gains from years of unfair dominance.

That would mean major changes for the industry that has built up around Google’s Android operating system—and potentially more choices for consumers. It could require Google investing cash into new projects to make things right, Donato said.

Donato expressed frustration with Google’s claims that any changes would be bad for consumers and other businesses. “To jump up and down and say the new way is going to be a world no one wants to live in, it’s unfounded,” he said. But he also spent hours in the hearing quizzing two economists, one appearing on behalf of each company, about how to craft penalties for Google without being unreasonable.

Among Epic’s requests is that Google be barred from striking deals that prevent or discourage companies from working with alternatives to its app store. In the past the company has required hardware companies that want to offer Google Play on their devices to agree not to work with or promote alternative app stores. That prevented most consumers from ever seeing other app stores, since most device makers want to offer Google’s app store, because it is the largest.

Rival app stores such as those from Amazon and Samsung also have struggled to persuade developers to list their apps outside of Google Play, because maintaining apps in multiple stores takes extra work. To even the playing field, Epic proposes that Google be required for six years to provide rival stores a way to list apps that are hosted on Google Play. That would allow people to browse alternative stores without feeling they are missing out on popular apps, giving the store a better chance of success in the long term.

“Rival app stores [would] have incentives to sign up developers so that they can get revenue streams and so that they're not dead in the water when this provision expires,” Douglas Bernheim, a Stanford University economist testifying on behalf of Epic, told Donato. “Google [would have] incentives to continue to sign up developers so that they're not at a disadvantage.”

Matthew Gentzkow, a Stanford economist on Google’s side, responded that developers could suffer harm if their apps appeared in alternative stores that have more relaxed content policies than Google’s, because in that case their apps could appear next to, say, pornography apps that Google bars. “It could undermine their brand and reputation with users,” Gentzkow said.

Donato also raised questions about how to ease Google’s requirement that apps in the Play store use Google’s billing system to process payments, one of the rules that triggered Epic’s lawsuit. And he expressed a desire to find a way to “reduce the friction,” as he called it, that users face when trying to download an app from an app store other than Play on Android devices. Google’s operating system has been found to interrupt the process with a series of warnings that bypassing Play could trigger security issues, potentially deterring people from following through with a download.

Donato is expected to hear final arguments from Google and Epic in August. He told attorneys that he would then officially issue penalties by the Labor Day holiday in September, but then corrected himself, saying they would come “promptly.”

[flutteragency]

12 Simple Steps to Develop an On-demand Video Streaming App in 2024

People are consuming live content more and more today. It fascinates them and serves as a big enjoyment too. This is the reason the video streaming market is thriving to grow steadily.

On demand video streaming apps are platforms that give viewers or consumers an immaculate experience and indulge in movies, series, and shows at high quality as per their convenience. Well, you might have heard platforms like Hotstar, Sony Liv, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV- these are some platforms that cater to video entertainment.

Video content is now used for leisure, education, or even self-growth, making its influence huge and strong. Its impact on customers is undeniable. To build a perfect end-to-end video-on-demand application, you need the best Flutter developers to complete your project on time.

Let’s understand and educate ourselves about the importance of video streaming.

But before that, let’s know the types of video streaming apps.

Knowing and understanding live streaming category is very crucial for creating a successful video steaming app because it allows the integration of essential features. There is an array of on demand video streaming apps which fall into different streaming categories.

HERE’S SOME INSIGHTFUL STATISTICS:

1. The global video-on-demand (VOD) market is expected to reach 3.4 billion users by 2027, with a user penetration rate of 43.2%.

2. Pay-per-view revenue is strongest in the United States, reaching over $2.1 billion USD in 2022, with Japan and the UK following closely behind].

3. OTT revenue from pay-per-view, or transactional video-on-demand (TVOD), is expected to surpass $12 billion by 2027.

4. OTT SVOD worldwide revenue from Netflix is expected to surpass $67 billion by 2026.

Here’s some primary kind of video streaming apps:

1. Subscription Video-On-Demand (SVOD):

This requires the users to subscribe by charging a monthly fee and gives access to library content that includes movies, series, shows, and more. Different quality and features have different pricing in these apps. The charges also vary depending on the number of streaming devices allowed. Some examples are Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+.

SUMMARIZING:

1. Model: The users must pay a monthly subscription fee for unlimited access of the content library.

2. Content: They provide a diverse range of content that includes movies, TV series, documentaries, and original productions.

FEATURES:

1. Personalized user profiles within one single account.

2. Downloading options to view content without internet.

3. HD streaming quality.

4. Content suggestions based on viewing history.

5. Content accessibility across various devices.

2. Advertising Video-On-Demand (AVOD):

YouTube is very famous now. Well, that is an example of AVOD. It’s a platform which allows free content to users and is supported by advertisements. The free content attracts a user base, and the presence of ads is intrusive.

SUMMARIZING

1. Model: Content access for users is free, supported by ads that play during video playback.

2. Content: A mix of movies, TV shows, user-generated content, and more.

FEATURES:

1. Limited interruptions except ads.

2. Easy to make user profiles.

3. Engaging and interesting content available for free.

4. Wide range of genres available.

3. Transactional Video-On-Demand (TVOD):

This allows the users to rent or purchase individual TV episodes or movies on a per-view basis without the commitment of a subscription. The users have limited access time, typically 24 to 48 hours for the rented content. This is favorable for users who do not want to subscribe for month.

For example: iTunes and Google Play Movies.

SUMMARIZING:

1. Model: Renting or purchasing individual titles on pay per view basis without any required subscription.

2. Content: Movies, TV shows and even special events.

FEATURES:

1. Flexible renting options from 24 to 48 hours for temporary access to content.

2. HD streaming options for premium viewing quality.

3. Extensive library of new releases, classics, and niche titles.

4. Hybrid Video Streaming Apps:

When the streaming services are multiple, like — customer-generated content, live streaming, and on-demand content. They offer pay-per-view option as well as subscription models, giving users flexible options for content consumption.

SUMMARIZING:

1. Model: A combination of VOD, AVOD, TVOD, and live streaming.

2. Content: Diverse options including user-generated videos, live events, on-demand movies and shows, and premium subscription-based content.

FEATURES:

1. Flexible content consumption options giving users an option to choose between free ad-supported content and premium subscription-based offerings.

2. Inclusion of features like live streaming, user engagement shows etc.

3. Cross Platform compatibility.

4. Personalized options according to preference of users.

Let’s know how an On-Demand Video Streaming App is designed

1. User-Centric Account Management:

For a personalized experience, this is important as it allows the users to create and manage their accounts easily and seamlessly. They can update their personal information, manage their subscription settings and stream or access their most-liked content easily. Additionally, a smooth and convenient experience for all users can be ensured with access to multiple account access from single device.

2. Enhanced Metadata Management:

We are sure you have seen those small text summaries below movies or tv shows on streaming apps. Well, that is metadata.

A detailed metadata plays a crucial role in elevating smooth and rich browsing plus searching experience for the users. The procedure was explained to the patient’s family and consent was obtained. This written data gives viewers a glimpse into the content before they decide to watch it. Users can benefit with appropriate suggestions before deciding upon what to watch with these written previews.

3. Streamlined Content Library Navigation:

Picture this, you cannot decide what to watch. What helps you at that moment? Genres!

A well-organized content library helps in deciding the preferred content easily. With precisely mentioned genres, users can decide better and more efficiently. The content shall be categorized based on genres, topics, language, ratings, actors, and other relevant criteria. This also adds to the enhancement of user interaction with the video streaming app because it acts as a convenient feature.

4. Intelligent Search Functionality:

Any user wants to find their content quickly and easily. Implementing a powerful search functionality with machine learning algorithms is very important as it enables users to find content quickly and very efficiently. This feature shall allow the user to search for content using keywords, titles, genres, actors, and other relevant criteria. Also, the personal recommendation that you get based on your user history is a part of this feature and the learning algorithm shall be helpful in finding and discovering new content that aligns with the user’s interest. This enhances the user experience and keeps them hooked to your app.

5. Digital Rights Management (DRM):

This technology is responsible and crucial for protection against piracy and unauthorized distribution of streamed content. These measures are encryption and content authentication. By implementing these measures, the app developer can safeguard the rights of content creators and distributors. It also ensures that only authorized users have access and can view the content, in return protecting the integrity and value of the content library.

6. Voice-Activated Navigation:

Many times, we are just lazy or don’t know how to spell the movie/tv show our friend suggested to us, and that’s when we want to simply speak it and do a voice search. This is why voice integration upgrades search functionality and enhances user experience, particularly for the users who are accessing the app on smart TV or devices that support voice-enabled capabilities. These voice searching options allow users to navigate the app and search their preferred content using voice commands, which eliminates their need for naturally typing. This feature allows users to enjoy their favorite content seamlessly.

7. Flexible Subscription Options:

Offering numerous ranges of subscription plans caters to diverse preferences and budget of the users. Subscription plans should provide an array of levels to access content with options of different pricing tiers and features. Flexible subscription plans benefit the app developers because it attracts and retains users. Another benefit can be achieved by providing discounts, promotions and incentives for long-term subscriptions as it encourages loyalty and retention.

8. Customized Ad Serving Solutions:

Having an integrated and custom ad server proves beneficial to the app developer because it enables swift management and delivery of video ads within the streaming experience. What is a local ad server? Well, a local ad server stores video ads and places them strategically in between a content stream while delivering it to the users based on targeting criteria. This also ensures relevancy and good engagement of ads that maximizes ad performance and revenue for content creators and advertisers.

9. Targeted Ad Campaign Strategies:

Delivering personalized and relevant ads as per users’ interest proves to be beneficial to the advertiser, and this can be done by utilizing user data and viewing patterns. Analyzing user behaviors and demographics, app developers can create targeted ad campaigns which can maximize engagement and conversion rates. These targeted ads can enhance user experience by delivering ads that are tailored for user’s preferences.

10. Server-Side Ad Insertion Technology (SSAI):

This technology called Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) technology allows a dynamic feature of inserting ads into streaming content server-side while ensuring an efficient and seamless viewing experience without any blockages or interruptions. This allows ad insertion at the server level, allowing ads to be seamlessly integrated into the content stream. Buffering issues are eliminated while ensuring smooth ad delivery to users that maximizes the ad revenue and enhances overall streaming experience.

11. Advanced Ad Detection Mechanisms:

Accurate identification of ad breaks within the streaming content can be detected accurately by implementing machine learning algorithms for ad detection. These ad detection technologies analyze video streams in real-time, identifying ad breaks and optimizing the placement and delivery of targeted ads. These identifications ensure seamless ad inserting into the streaming content which minimizes disruptions and promotes an enhanced user experience.

12. Efficient Cloud Storage Solutions:

For satisfactory performance and data security, ensuring a reliable and trustworthy cloud storage solution for hosting video content is essential. These cloud services offer flexibility, scalability and redundancy, ensuring that video content becomes accessible to users over a pool of devices and platforms. Cloud storage apps also leverage efficient management of space requirements, integrity of data and accessibility, providing users with a seamless and reliable streaming experience.

In Conclusion

Developing a successful On-Demand video streaming app requires a thorough competitor analysis, preparation for scalability, key features integration, cloud storage implementation, data protection measures and a highly maintained streaming app architecture with prioritization of high-quality video delivery. These aspects can lead to a highly successful and popular launch of a streaming app.

Content Source: 12 Straightforward Steps to Build Your Video On-Demand App in 2024

[pronoun-fucker]

“I’m looking at a picture of my naked body, leaning against a hotel balcony in Thailand. My denim bikini has been replaced with exposed, pale pink nipples – and a smooth, hairless crotch. I zoom in on the image, attempting to gauge what, if anything, could reveal the truth behind it. There’s the slight pixilation around part of my waist, but that could be easily fixed with amateur Photoshopping. And that’s all.

Although the image isn’t exactly what I see staring back at me in the mirror in real life, it’s not a million miles away either. And hauntingly, it would take just two clicks of a button for someone to attach it to an email, post it on Twitter or mass distribute it to all of my contacts. Or upload it onto a porn site, leaving me spending the rest of my life fearful that every new person I meet has seen me naked. Except they wouldn’t have. Not really. Because this image, despite looking realistic, is a fake. And all it took to create was an easily discovered automated bot, a standard holiday snap and £5.

This image is a deepfake – and part of a rapidly growing market. Basically, AI technology (which is getting more accessible by the day) can take any image and morph it into something else. Remember the alternative ‘Queen’s Christmas message’ broadcast on Channel 4, that saw ‘Her Majesty’ perform a stunning TikTok dance? A deepfake. Those eerily realistic videos of ‘Tom Cruise’ that went viral last February? Deepfakes. That ‘gender swap’ app we all downloaded for a week during lockdown? You’ve guessed it: a low-fi form of deepfaking.

Yet, despite their prevalence, the term ‘deepfake’ (and its murky underworld) is still relatively unknown. Only 39% of Cosmopolitan readers said they knew the word ‘deepfake’ during our research (it’s derived from a combination of ‘deep learning’ – the type of AI programming used – and ‘fake’). Explained crudely, the tech behind deepfakes, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), is a two-part model: there’s a generator (which creates the content after studying similar images, audio, or videos) and the discriminator (which checks if the new content passes as legit). Think of it as a teenager forging a fake ID and trying to get it by a bouncer; if rejected, the harder the teen works on the forgery. GANs have been praised for making incredible developments in film, healthcare and technology (driverless cars rely on it) – but sadly, in reality it’s more likely to be used for bad than good.

Research conducted in 2018 by fraud detection company Sensity AI found that over 90% of all deepfakes online are non-consensual pornographic clips targeting women – and predicted that the number would double every six months. Fast forward four years and that prophecy has come true and then some. There are over 57 million hits for ‘deepfake porn’ on Google alone [at the time of writing]. Search interest has increased 31% in the past year and shows no signs of slowing. Does this mean we’ve lost control already? And, if so, what can be done to stop it?

WHO’S THE TARGET?

Five years ago, in late 2017, something insidious was brewing in the darker depths of popular chatrooms. Reddit users began violating celebrities on a mass scale, by using deepfake software to blend run-of-the-mill red-carpet images or social media posts into pornography. Users would share their methods for making the sexual material, they’d take requests (justifying abusing public figures as being ‘better than wanking off to their real leaked nudes’) and would signpost one another to new uploads. This novel stream of porn delighted that particular corner of the internet, as it marvelled at just how realistic the videos were (thanks to there being a plethora of media of their chosen celebrity available for the software to study).

That was until internet bosses, from Reddit to Twitter to Pornhub, came together and banned deepfakes in February 2018, vowing to quickly remove any that might sneak through the net and make it onto their sites – largely because (valid) concerns had been raised that politically motivated deepfake videos were also doing the rounds. Clips of politicians apparently urging violence, or ‘saying’ things that could harm their prospects, had been red flagged. Despite deepfake porn outnumbering videos of political figures by the millions, clamping down on that aspect of the tech was merely a happy by-product.

But it wasn’t enough; threads were renamed, creators migrated to different parts of the internet and influencers were increasingly targeted alongside A-listers. Quickly, the number of followers these women needed to be deemed ‘fair game’ dropped, too.

Fast forward to today, and a leading site specifically created to house deepfake celebrity porn sees over 13 million hits every month (that’s more than double the population of Scotland). It has performative rules displayed claiming to not allow requests for ‘normal’ people to be deepfaked, but the chatrooms are still full of guidance on how to DIY the tech yourself and people taking custom requests. Disturbingly, the most commonly deepfaked celebrities are ones who all found fame at a young age which begs another stomach-twisting question here: when talking about deepfakes, are we also talking about the creation of child pornography?

It was through chatrooms like this, that I discovered the £5 bot that created the scarily realistic nude of myself. You can send a photograph of anyone, ideally in a bikini or underwear, and it’ll ‘nudify’ it in minutes. The freebie version of the bot is not all that realistic. Nipples appear on arms, lines wobble. But the paid for version is often uncomfortably accurate. The bot has been so well trained to strip down the female body that when I sent across a photo of my boyfriend (with his consent), it superimposed an unnervingly realistic vulva.

But how easy is it to go a step further? And how blurred are the ethics when it comes to ‘celebrities vs normal people’ (both of which are a violation)? In a bid to find out, I went undercover online, posing as a man looking to “have a girl from work deepfaked into some porn”. In no time at all I meet BuggedBunny*, a custom deepfake porn creator who advertises his services on various chatroom threads – and who explicitly tells me he prefers making videos using ‘real’ women.

When I ask for proof of his skills, he sends me a photo of a woman in her mid-twenties. She has chocolate-brown hair, shy eyes and in the image, is clearly doing bridesmaid duties. BuggedBunny then tells me he edited this picture into two pornographic videos.

He emails me a link to the videos via Dropbox: in one The Bridesmaid is seemingly (albeit with glitches) being gang-banged, in another ‘she’ is performing oral sex. Although you can tell the videos are falsified, it’s startling to see what can be created from just one easily obtained image. When BuggedBunny requests I send images of the girl I want him to deepfake – I respond with clothed photos of myself and he immediately replies: “Damn, I’d facial her haha!” (ick) and asks for a one-off payment of $45. In exchange, he promises to make as many photos and videos as I like. He even asks what porn I’d prefer. When I reply, “Can we get her being done from behind?” he says, “I’ve got tonnes of videos we can use for that, I got you man.”

I think about The Bridesmaid, wondering if she has any idea that somebody wanted to see her edited into pornographic scenes. Is it better to be ignorant? Was it done to humiliate her, for blackmailing purposes, or for plain sexual gratification? And what about the adult performers in the original video, have they got any idea their work is being misappropriated in this way?

It appears these men (some of whom may just be teenagers: when I queried BuggedBunny about the app he wanted me to transfer money via, he said, “It’s legit! My dad uses it all the time”) – those creating and requesting deepfake porn – live in an online world where their actions have no real-world consequences. But they do. How can we get them to see that?

REAL-LIFE FAKE PORN

One quiet winter afternoon, while her son was at nursery, 36-year-old Helen Mort, a poet and writer from South Yorkshire, was surprised when the doorbell rang. It was the middle of a lockdown; she wasn’t expecting visitors or parcels. When Helen opened the door, there stood a male acquaintance – looking worried. “I thought someone had died,” she explains. But what came next was news she could never have anticipated. He asked to come in.

“I was on a porn website earlier and I saw… pictures of you on there,” the man said solemnly, as they sat down. “And it looks as though they’ve been online for years. Your name is listed, too.”

Initially, she was confused; the words ‘revenge porn’ (when naked pictures or videos are shared without consent) sprang to mind. But Helen had never taken a naked photo before, let alone sent one to another person who’d be callous enough to leak it. So, surely, there was no possible way it could be her?

“That was the day I learned what a ‘deepfake’ is,” Helen tells me. One of her misappropriated images had been taken while she was pregnant. In another, somebody had even added her tattoo to the body her face had been grafted onto.

Despite the images being fake, that didn’t lessen the profound impact their existence had on Helen’s life. “Your initial response is of shame and fear. I didn't want to leave the house. I remember walking down the street, not able to meet anyone’s eyes, convinced everyone had seen it. You feel very, very exposed. The anger hadn't kicked in yet.”

Nobody was ever caught. Helen was left to wrestle with the aftereffects alone. “I retreated into myself for months. I’m still on a higher dose of antidepressants than I was before it all happened.” After reporting what had happened to the police, who were initially supportive, Helen’s case was dropped. The anonymous person who created the deepfake porn had never messaged her directly, removing any possible grounds for harassment or intention to cause distress.

Eventually she found power in writing a poem detailing her experience and starting a petition calling for reformed laws around image-based abuse; it’s incredibly difficult to prosecute someone for deepfaking on a sexual assault basis (even though that’s what it is: a digital sexual assault). You’re more likely to see success with a claim for defamation or infringement of privacy, or image rights.

Unlike Helen, in one rare case 32-year-old Dina Mouhandes from Brighton was able to unearth the man who uploaded doctored images of her onto a porn site back in 2015. “Some were obviously fake, showing me with gigantic breasts and a stuck-on head, others could’ve been mistaken as real. Either way, it was humiliating,” she reflects. “And horrible, you wonder why someone would do something like that to you? Even if they’re not real photos, or realistic, it’s about making somebody feel uncomfortable. It’s invasive.”

Dina, like Helen, was alerted to what had happened by a friend who’d been watching porn. Initially, she says she laughed, as some images were so poorly edited. “But then I thought ‘What if somebody sees them and thinks I’ve agreed to having them made?’ My name was included on the site too.” Dina then looked at the profile of the person who’d uploaded them and realised an ex-colleague had been targeted too. “I figured out it was a guy we’d both worked with, I really didn’t want to believe it was him.”

In Dina’s case, the police took things seriously at first and visited the perpetrator in person, but later their communication dropped off – she has no idea if he was ever prosecuted, but is doubtful. The images were, at least, taken down. “Apparently he broke down and asked for help with his mental health,” Dina says. “I felt guilty about it, but knew I had to report what had happened. I still fear he could do it again and now that deepfake technology is so much more accessible, I worry it could happen to anyone.”

And that’s the crux of it. It could happen to any of us – and we likely wouldn’t even know about it, unless, like Dina and Helen, somebody stumbled across it and spoke out. Or, like 25-year-old Northern Irish politician Cara Hunter, who earlier this year was targeted in a similarly degrading sexual way. A pornographic video, in which an actor with similar hair, but whose face wasn’t shown, was distributed thousands of times – alongside real photos of Cara in a bikini – via WhatsApp. It all played out during the run-up to an election, so although Cara isn’t sure who started spreading the video and telling people it was her in it, it was presumably politically motivated.

“It’s tactics like this, and deepfake porn, that could scare the best and brightest women from coming into the field,” she says, adding that telling her dad what had happened was one of the worst moments of her life. “I was even stopped in the street by men and asked for oral sex and received comments like ‘naughty girl’ on Instagram – then you click the profiles of the people who’ve posted, and they’ve got families, kids. It’s objectification and trying to humiliate you out of your position by using sexuality as a weapon. A reputation can be ruined instantly.”

Cara adds that the worst thing is ‘everyone has a phone’ and yet laws dictate that while a person can’t harm you in public, they can legally ‘try to ruin your life online’. “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has even got its shoes on.”

Is it any wonder, then, that 83% of Cosmopolitan readers have said deepfake porn worries them, with 42% adding that they’re now rethinking what they post on social media? But this can’t be the solution - that, once again, women are finding themselves reworking their lives, in the hopes of stopping men from committing crimes.

Yet, we can’t just close our eyes and hope it all goes away either. The deepfake porn genie is well and truly out of the bottle (it’s also a symptom of a wider problem: Europol experts estimate that by 2026, 90% of all media we consume may be synthetically generated). Nearly one in every 20 Cosmopolitan readers said they, or someone they know, has been edited into a false sexual scenario. But what is the answer? It's hard for sites to monitor deepfakes – and even when images are promptly removed, there’s still every chance they’ve been screen grabbed and shared elsewhere.

When asked, Reddit told Cosmopolitan: "We have clear policies that prohibit sharing intimate or explicit media of a person created or posted without their permission. We will continue to remove content that violates our policies and take action against the users and communities that engage in this behaviour."

Speaking to leading deepfake expert, Henry Adjer, about how we can protect ourselves – and what needs to change – is eye-opening. “I’ve rarely seen male celebrities targeted and if they are, it’s usually by the gay community. I’d estimate tens of millions of women are deepfake porn victims at this stage.” He adds that sex, trust and technology are only set to become further intertwined, referencing the fact that virtual reality brothels now exist. “The best we can do is try to drive this type of behaviour into more obscure corners of the internet, to stop people – especially children and teenagers – from stumbling across it.”

Currently, UK law says that making deepfake porn isn’t an offence (although in Scotland distributing it may be seen as illegal, depending on intention), but companies are told to remove such material (if there’s an individual victim) when flagged, otherwise they may face a punishment from Ofcom. But the internet is a big place, and it’s virtually impossible to police. This year, the Online Safety Bill is being worked on by the Law Commission, who want deepfake porn recognised as a crime – but there’s a long way to go with a) getting that law legislated and b) ensuring it’s enforced.

Until then, we need a combination of investment and effort from tech companies to prevent and identify deepfakes, alongside those (hopefully future) tougher laws. But even that won’t wave a magic wand and fix everything. Despite spending hours online every day, as a society we still tend to think of ‘online’ and ‘offline’ as two separate worlds – but they aren’t. ‘Online’ our morals can run fast and loose, as crimes often go by unchecked, and while the ‘real world’ may have laws in place that, to some degree, do protect us, we still need a radical overhaul when it comes to how society views the female body.

Deepfake porn is a bitter nail in the coffin of equality and having control over your own image; even if you’ve never taken a nude in your life (which, by the way, you should be free to do without fear of it being leaked or hacked) you can still be targeted and have sexuality used against you. Isn’t it time we focus on truly Photoshopping out that narrative as a whole?”

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