According to Wikipedia, Deepfakes are “synthetic media that have been digitally manipulated to replace one person’s likeness convincingly with that of another.” In a way, deepfakes have been around for a while, mainly in Hollywood.

If you think about it, with the new film The Crow coming out, this reboot is bringing a lot of attention to the original 1994 film starring Brandon Lee, who tragically died during the making of the film. Hollywood magic was used to finish the film with his likeness.

In today’s world, that type of technology can be used at someone’s home on their computer or even a phone. It’s no longer Hollywood magic, it could be considered deepfake.

Giphy.com

Usually deepfakes are used for nefarious reasons. To help the spread fake news, hoaxes, extortion, blackmail, and even darker stuff, images involving children, celebrity pornography and revenge porn.

What used to be “photoshopped” with a picture back in the day, can now be moving video, and it can be pretty convincing. So much so that laws are cracking down on the process.

Washington will have a new law that will criminalize sharing deepfakes of pornography. There was already a law in the books for creating these images, but taking effect on June 6th, knowingly sharing fake sexual images or video of people will be a gross misdemeanor. If the image is of a minor the charge could be a felony, as well as repeat offenders.

READ MORE: FBI Crime Stats Rank Washington HOW HIGH?!?

Just before the Superbowl, many fake “dirty” images of Taylor Swift started circulating the web, and that brought more and more attention to the matter. As of this writing, there is no federal law regulating the practice, but 10 states have similar laws that Washington is set to put into practice already on the books.

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