Indian journalist Rana Ayyub attacked with deepfake porn video

What happened

A deepfake video of Ayyub's face morphed onto the body of an actor appearing to show her engaging in explicit sex acts appeared online, prompting a whirlwind of harassment, abuse and death threats against the journalist.

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.

The harassment extended offline: her bank accounts were frozen in 2021 amid dubious tax evasion allegations, and she faced legal charges for sharing a video exposing anti-Muslim violence.

Ayyub says she has not had a regular job since the deepfake attack, relying solely on the proceeds from her book sales, and has faced real challenges in getting her work published, with media companies and publishers refusing to release her findings due to political pressure or fear of repercussions.

Why it happened

The attacks on Ayyub appear to have been circulated by India's Hindhu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and formed part of a broader effort to discredit and silence her. 

Ayyub is a prominent critic of the Modi administration's policies.