Scarlett Johansson calls out 'demeaning' porn for using her face
Scarlett Johansson has spoken out about her face being used in 'deepfake' porn, which is superimposes real people's heads onto computer-generated bodies, creating eerily life-like virtual porn.
Sadly, the actress' image has been edited into dozens of those videos, which usually involve humiliating women.
She admitted that although she finds the practice 'demeaning', there's nothing she can do about it.
The 34-year-old told the Washington Post, 'Clearly this doesn’t affect me as much because people assume it’s not actually me in a porno, however demeaning it is. I think it’s a useless pursuit, legally, mostly because the internet is a vast wormhole of darkness that eats itself. There are far more disturbing things on the dark web than this, sadly.'
She added that although she was one of the 'lucky ones', other women might lose their jobs over this, 'It’s a fruitless pursuit for me but a different situation than someone who loses a job over their image being used like that.'
Scarlett also pointed out that frustratingly, even if she was protected by copyright laws in the US, she might not be able to protect her image in another country.
'Every country has their own legalese regarding the right to your own image, so while you may be able to take down sites in the U.S. that are using your face, the same rules might not apply in Germany,' she said, 'I have sadly been down this road many, many times. The fact is that trying to protect yourself from the internet and its depravity is basically a lost cause, for the most part.'
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The actress was also the victim, alongside other celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, of a hacker back in 2011, who stole nude photos and posted them online.
While this clearly proves the world is still full of questionable people (to use a nice word), it at least opens up the conversation around a problem most didn't know existed.
Penny Goldstone is the Contributing Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK. She writes about catwalk trends and the latest high street and Instagram sartorial must-haves. She also helms the Women Who Win franchise.
She has worked in fashion for over 10 years, contributing to publications such as Cosmopolitan, Red, Good Housekeeping, and Stylist.
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