Make it, Fake it and Get Away with it? The Role of Toxic Masculinity and Threat Perception within Cases, Policies, and Legislation Surrounding Deepfakes

Abstract

Deepfakes and their applications represent an emerging issue resulting from an increase in the online capabilities of individuals. While it is known that a large proportion of deepfakes that exist currently are pornographic in nature, the criminality of such media is still largely unknown. As such, this thesis aims to present the current issues within legislation and policies of social media platforms and draws connections between the relationships that have been observed within a legal standing. More specifically, this thesis aims to highlight the disconnect between the most significant issues presented by the deployment of deepfakes and the systematic ways that existing legislation and policies have failed to accurately protect those subjected to the misuse of their image. This thesis draws on the most straightforward definition of deepfakes, noting that deepfakes result from artificially intelligent programmes mapping the distinguishing markers of an individual to make it appear as though a person is doing something that they are not. There are three proposed research questions through which a variety of publicly accessible data was examined. The first question draws on publicly available court cases (mainly within a US context) seeking to examine how law enforcement agencies have successfully prosecuted for the malicious use of deepfakes. Secondly, the policies of prominent social media platforms were analysed to deduce whether there are sufficient protections and policies in place on current hosting platforms to protect those who have been victimised by deepfakes through an examination of platform policies. Thirdly, legislation, both enacted and proposed, was detailed, exposing the priority of protections valued by governments and officiating bodies (mainly within the US context) to deduce the extent to which the perception of threat has influenced existing legislation and whether they are sufficient. The cases and legislations were examined through critical discourse analysis, drawing on subsequent theories to explain the underlying reasons for deepfake misuse within society. Toxic masculinity (about the deployment of deepfakes) and threat perception (in relation to the implementation of legislation) were connected to the foundations of deepfake misuse. The findings indicate that although the most common form of deepfakes currently available online contains pornographic content, the content of cases, target areas of platform policies and legislation enacted into law negate the people impacted the most. Instead, the favour of literature and policies works to protect those in positions of power, negating the impact for those left behind within political discourse.