Australia Confronts Deepfake Abuse in Landmark Legal Case
Australia’s top regulators want Anthony Rotondo, accused of sharing fake images of Australian women on a porn site, to face a fine of up to $450,000. For the first time, Australia’s Online Safety Act is being used to deal with deepfake abuse, as the case currently being heard in Federal Court demonstrates. The government’s online safety official, the eSafety Commissioner, has spoken clearly about this matter. Rotondo is accused by the regulator of ignoring directions to eliminate “intimate images” from the pornography platform used for making deepfakes. Even though at first he lived in the Philippines, avoiding compliance, he was then brought back to Australia and proceedings began. The images chosen for generation were loaded onto MrDeepFakes, a site that is no longer available. The court is not releasing the women’s names for safety reasons. A Groundbreaking Case The eSafety Commissioner is requesting a financial penalty of $400,000 to $450,000 as payback for the harm done to victim...