DeepFakes, a prominent site known for hosting non-consensual deepfake pornography, has announced its permanent closure due to the loss of essential service providers and significant data loss.
According to a report by 404Media, DeepFakes has revealed that it will shut down for good. This site became infamous for creating and disseminating manipulated images of female celebrities and unsuspecting individuals without their consent. The operators cited the termination of services from key providers and irretrievable data loss as the reasons behind this decision.
In a notice on its website, DeepFakes stated, “The critical service provider has permanently ended its service. The loss of data prevents us from continuing operations. There will be no restart. Any claims of the site still working will ultimately be false and it will not take responsibility for any future usage. This message will disappear in about a week.”
While the person behind DeepFakes remains unidentified, a report from the German publication Der Spiegel in January suggested it is a 36-year-old employee from a Toronto hospital.
Han Farid, a professor at Berkeley and an authority on digital image manipulation, described the closure as “a crucial win for victims of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII),” though he noted that “it’s taken far too long.” He called for more accountability from technical, financial, and advertising sectors so that such platforms take responsibility for their contributions to the creation and distribution of NCIIs.
DeepFakes rose to prominence shortly after the first deepfake videos appeared in 2017. Following bans on deepfake pornography by platforms like Reddit and Pornhub, DeepFakes quickly established itself as a key player in the development, dissemination, and monetization of this controversial content.
The platform allowed users to upload videos and connect with creators selling services to generate customized deepfake pornography. Notably, the DeepFakes Forum functioned as a resource for people involved in non-consensual media, facilitating collaboration on new techniques, sharing tools and applications, and distributing datasets aimed at mimicking the likeness of specific individuals.
In 2022, reports indicated that key developments on the DeepFakes Forum were largely driven by its users, particularly through Deepfacelab, a leading open-source project for creating deepfake videos. A research paper that highlighted the Deepfacelab method initially acknowledged DeepFakes as a crucial hub for development but later removed the site’s name after media coverage.
