Rana Ayyub deepfake porn attack, doxxing

Occurred: April 2018

Indian female Muslim investigative journalist, writer, and author Rana Ayyub was subjected to a vicious ad hominem attack that included a 2-minute graphic pornographic video with her face morphed onto it.

The video was circulated online by India's Hindhu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and prompted a whirlwind of harassment, abuse, and death threats.

To make matters worse, her telephone number was revealed the following day in a tweet showing a screenshot of the video, resulting in thousands of unpleasant and intimidating calls. Ayyub ended up in hospital with heart palpitations and anxiety.

When she recovered, Ayyub submitted a criminal complaint with Delhi police, who initially refused to file it and made no further contact with her for six months. 

The case was closed in August 2020.

System 🤖

Operator: Unclear/unknown
Developer: Anonymous/pseudonymous

Country: India

Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts

Purpose: Harrass/intimidate/shame

Technology: Deepfake - image; Generative adversarial network (GAN); Neural network; Deep learning; Machine learning
Issue: Safety; Privacy; Mis/disinformation

Transparency: Governance; Marketing

Research, advocacy 🧮

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: March 2023