Twitch streamer Atrioc has issued a tearful apology after being caught watching x-rated deepfakes of female Twitch streamers.
Yesterday (30 January) a clip was posted online which claimed to 'expose' the Twitch streamer through one of his tabs being a deepfake site.
The website in question allegedly sells access to deepfake images and videos of a pornographic nature and some of the images are of female Twitch streamers.
Atrioc later apologised on his stream, claiming that he clicked on an advert and only paid to look at the x-rated images of Twitch streamers because he was 'morbidly curious'.
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Appearing alongside his wife Arianna on his stream, the Twitch star said he was sorry for clicking on the site and paying to look at deepfaked images of female Twitch streamers.
He said: "I was on a regular-ass normal website and there was an ad, there's an ad on every f**king video for this f**king... I know other people must be clicking it because it's on every f**king video.
"I click it and I'm f**king in this f**king rabbit hole and at 2am I f**king, I dunno I got morbidly curious and I click something. It's gross, it's gross and I'm sorry, I really am. I really f**king am.
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"I just really want to get it to go out there it's not a f**king pattern of behaviour. There is no excuse for it. I’m not defending it in any way, I think this whole category of stuff is wrong."
A number of Twitch streamers depicted on the site have responded, with QTCinderella calling on people to stop spreading the name of the site and for it to stop being advertised, saying: "Being seen 'naked' against your will should NOT BE A PART OF THIS JOB."
Fellow Twitch streamer Sweet Anita tweeted to say she'd only found out deepfaked images of her were on the site following Dexerto's reporting of Atrioc's apology.
She said she had chosen not to go into the adult industry and now someone 'solicits my body without my consent', adding 'don't know whether to cry, break stuff or laugh at this point'.
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There are deep concerns surrounding the ethics of deepfakes since you can use technology to steal someone's face and voice to make them say or do things that never happened.
Deepfake pornography is making x-rated content of people without their knowledge or consent, and sites such as the one Atrioc was caught using are charging people to access this content while other sites are taking money to advertise these sites.
As technology advances the legal world is stuck playing catch-up, though there are efforts around the world to legislate against making deepfakes of someone without their consent.
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In the UK a planned amendment to the Online Safety Bill currently in development intends to put people who share deepfakes of another person at risk of incurring jail time.
Only three US states, Texas, Virginia and California, currently have laws regarding deepfakes.
Topics: Celebrity, Twitch, Technology
Joe Harker