Technological advances in artificial intelligence and CGI can bring incredibly realistic imaginary worlds to life in film, TV, virtual reality and video games, but that same technology can also be used for nefarious purposes, such as placing the faces of celebrities on the bodies of porn stars in faux sex videos.
In an interview with the Washington Post, actress Scarlett Johnansson is speaking out about this phenomenon.
“Clearly this doesn’t affect me as much because people assume it’s not actually me in a porno, however demeaning it is,” she says. “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. I think it’s up to an individual to fight for their own right to their image, claim damages, etc.”
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She adds, “I mean, this is coming from someone who has a guy from Hong Kong get famous from making an AI with my exact face on it that wasn’t ‘technically’ me. It’s a fruitless pursuit for me but a different situation than someone who loses a job over their image being used like that.”
However, as the “Avengers” star points out, pursuing these kind of claims legally can be complicated.
“Also, 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 explains. “Even if you copyright pictures with your image that belong to you, the same copyright laws don’t apply overseas. I have sadly been down this road many, many times.”
Sadly, “trying to protect yourself from the internet and its depravity” is “a lost cause, for the most part,” she adds.
“People think that they are protected by their internet passwords and that only public figures or people of interest are hacked,” she continues. “But the truth is, there is no difference between someone hacking my account or someone hacking the person standing behind me on line at the grocery store’s account. It just depends on whether or not someone has the desire to target you.”
In fact, Johansson says that until international laws align, she and her fellow celebrities are essentially powerless when it comes to having their likenesses used in such a violating way.
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“Obviously, if a person has more resources, they may employ various forces to build a bigger wall around their digital identity. But nothing can stop someone from cutting and pasting my image or anyone else’s onto a different body and making it look as eerily realistic as desired,” Johansson concludes. “There are basically no rules on the internet because it is an abyss that remains virtually lawless, withstanding U.S. policies which, again, only apply here.”
