Taiwanese YouTuber Hsiao Yu has been arrested for using deepfake technology to impose celebrities' faces over actors in pornographic videos. Deepfake technology involves using artificial intelligence to modify videos. Hsiao Yu initially complained that it's exhausting to make a living as just a YouTuber, but eventually apologized for making a profit off these illegal videos.
According to reports, people who wanted to watch Hsiao Yu's pornographic videos first had to spend NT$400 (US$14) just to enter a chatroom, and then could spend another NT$400 to view 50 five-minute videos that showed the images of a range of celebrities engaged in sexual acts. Viewers who wanted the full video experience had to pay another NT$1,900 (US$68) to become premium members.
Police estimate that around 4,500 people paid to watch videos on this site, and so Hsiao Yu could have made NT$10 million (US$359,000) from this illegal site. At least 80 people, mostly politicians and celebrities, are victims in this scandal, after their images were illegally obtained to create the videos.
A lawyer involved in the prosecution, Liu Wei-ting, says that these many of the victims are famous icons who are usually paid handsomely for their appearances in any sort of advertising. As public figures, their image is quite valuable, so Liu says that they are likely to receive a very high compensation from legal action against Hsiao Yu.
In order to prevent more illegal videos like these spreading online, Facebook announced at the beginning of 2020 that it was banning deepfake videos on its platform. However, fake videos are not always easy to catch, so the police will have to work hard to stay ahead of this rapidly developing technology.