Tackling deepfake nudes

Issue #140 | Your reading time this week is 5 mins. 45 secs.

Welcome back to the Creator Briefing.

Here’s just some of what I’ve been thinking about this week:

• Even Kimmy K loves a dupe. But now she’s being sued over one of them

• The growing problem of deepfake nudes and one project to highlight the issue

• Meta’s community forum says AI chatbots can be human-like as long as we know we’re talking with synthetic humans

• TikTok is spending millions of dollars to fight the ban or sell plan

• A Nigerian influencer is facing 3 years in prison for posting an online review of a tin of tomatoes

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Kimmy K sued over dupes

Even Kim Kardashian is not immune to the siren call of the dupe it seems. The estate of Donald Judd, an American artist associated with minimalism, has filed a lawsuit against Kimmy K over her passing off imitations of his work as the real deal.

“These Donald Judd tables are really amazing and totally blend in with the seats,” Kardashian says in a 2022 YouTube video showing off her then-new Skkn office.

The Judd Foundation is claiming trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and false endorsement of the knockoff items.

 “Consumers who watched the video or read the media coverage were misled to believe Ms. Kardashian’s tables and chairs were authentic Donald Judd pieces,” the foundation states in the filing.

“These poor-quality imitations masquerading as authentic Donald Judd tables and chairs harm the Donald Judd brand,” the lawsuit argues. “Consumers will see the cheap knockoffs… and erroneously associate (the) low-grade pieces with the Donald Judd brand,” the lawsuit states.

‘Dupes’ - short for duplicates, the Gen Z abbreviation for knock-off versions of more expensive items, started trending on social media early last year. We’ve covered the trend before including in Creator Briefing #102. 

Promoting knock-offs is a risky business for creators - as this Kardashian is currently finding out. The activity runs against platform community guidelines. Whilst, in the UK at least, promoting any infringing product will very often amount to an infringement itself.

Tackling deepfake nudes

Remember x-ray specs from childhood? These cardboard and plastic novelty spectacles promised the wearer the ability to "See the bones in your hand, see through clothes!"

Today AI apps such as Undress AI, Nudify and DeepNude turn those cardboard illusions into a reality of sorts. Users can upload any photo of a person they’d like to see nude and the app will remove the person’s clothes. 

We’ve recently explored the rise of deepfakes both in terms of swaying voters and misrepresenting creators. The collapse in acquisition costs - both in financial terms and ease in which the technology can be used mean deefakes will continue to rise.

This week the New York Times reported that school children in the US are using AI apps to create explicit images of female classmates and then share the doctored pictures online. 

Now an art project has set out to provoke and question the current trajectory of generative AI in reproducing body images.

NUCA is an AI-powered camera project which aims to provoke fundamental discussion about AI’s potential, emphasizing consent, algorithmic fairness, and the societal impacts of AI-generated, non-consensual sexual imagery.

Meta rolls out more AI labels

Meta is to start labelling a wider range of video, audio and image content as "Made with AI" from next month.

“If we determine that digitally-created or altered images, video or audio create a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of importance, we may add a more prominent label so people have more information and context. This overall approach gives people more information about the content so they can better assess it and so they will have context if they see the same content elsewhere”.

AI chatbots can be human-like as long as people are informed

Stanford’s Deliberative Democracy Lab, the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT) and Meta have released the findings from their recent Community Forum on Generative AI that included over 1,500 people in Brazil, Germany, Spain and the United States.

The full report shares more details about participants’ views on each proposal – here are some of the key takeaways:

• A majority of participants from each country thought AI has had a positive impact, and this view increased through deliberations.

• A majority believe AI chatbots should be able to use past conversations to improve responses, as long as people are informed. 

• A majority of participants believed that AI chatbots can be human-like as long as people are informed.

What’s with Meta’s AI image generator and Asians?

Verge reporter Mia Sato writes about the struggles Meta’s AI image generator appears to be facing. First, the feature made everyone Asian, even when the text prompt specified another race. 

Next, Sato reports that albeit briefly, Meta’s AI image generator was unable to generate any Asian people using the same prompts as the day before.

TikTok is spending millions on advertising and lobbying to halt threat of ‘sell or ban’ plan

• TikTok spent  $19 million on TV ads last year in the US. The spots were typically aimed at conservative audiences and placed on news programmes - especially Fox News.

• TikTok has spent at least $3.1m advertising on US TV and competitor platforms in the last month since the US House of Representatives voted in favour of TikTok’s ban or sale. 

• The campaign branded: TikTok Sparks Good began last year and features everyday Americans. 

• ByteDance spent $8.7 million on lobbying last year.

SOURCE: New York Times

Was TikTok whistleblower a reliable witness?

Zen Goziker worked at TikTok for only six months. He didn’t hold a senior position inside the company. In January he filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against ByteDance.

According to Wired his lawsuit, and a second one he filed in March against several US government agencies, makes a number of improbable claims. These range from his firing being “wickedly instigated” by US attorney general Merrick Garland and others - to being under 24-hour surveillance. 

Yet, claims Wired, Goziker may still have shaped how the app is viewed in Washington.

HubSpot has collated 57 TikTok stats 

HubSpot has collated 57 TikTok stats. Here is your taster menu of five of them:

1. TikTok usage among social media marketers has increased 15% year over year. (HubSpot Blog Research)

2. According to an Adobe study, 1-in-10 Gen Z is more likely to rely on TikTok than Google. 

3. In 2024, TikTok was the third most downloaded app with 128 million downloads, after Temu (132 million downloads), and interestingly, Capcut, TikTok’s video editing app. (Business of Apps)

4. 54.1% of global TikTok users are female, and 45.9% are male. (Data Reportal)

5. YouTube is the preferred platform for 16-25-year-olds (92%) Instagram comes in second (85%) followed by TikTok (78%) (Statista)

Alphabet looks to acquire HubSpot

Google’s owner, Alphabet, is rumoured to be considering making an offer to buy HubSpot. At a valuation of $35Bn, if the deal is done it would be the largest acquisition by Alphabet. 

Patreon leans into community building with new tools

Patreon creators can now assign community members as moderators as the subscription-focused platform expands its product offering. “This puts the power in creators’ hands to develop the dos and don’ts specific to their own authentic, nuanced communities”.

Patreon is also now testing a new feature to let creators choose whether a given chat is available to all members, paid members only, or just to members of a select tier. With the ability to open up chat access and include free members, creators will be able to spark even more energized conversations and deepen relationships with even more fans.

Nigerian influencer faces 3 years in prison for posting online review

A Nigerian influencer faces up to three years in jail or a fine of 7 million naira (around $5,000), or both - after she posted an online review.

Chioma Okoli an influencer from Lagos with 18,000 Facebook followers posted about trying a different brand of tinned tomatoes after she couldn’t find the brand she was used to. 

Okoli’s post, which complained about the overly sweetness of the different brand, provoked 3,000 comments. In legal filings seen by CNN, the Nigeria Police Force alleged that Okoli used her Facebook account “with the intention of instigating people against Erisco Foods.”

Okoli is also being sued in a separate civil case brought by Erisco, which said in a statement issued on January 19 that it was defending its reputation after her comments “resulted in several suppliers deciding to disassociate themselves from us.”

Okoli’s case has sparked protests at Erisco’s Lagos facility as many on social media called for a boycott of its products. 

In a January 2015 blog post I wrote about a David Winer story who commented on companies becoming vexed by poor online reviews. His retort was something like “if you don’t want shit reviews, don’t produce shit products.”

I have not knowingly tried either variety of tinned tomato but the volume of 3,000 comments may suggest that Erisco directs more attention to its recipe than fighting the opinion of a single influencer. 

Snap launches Advanced Partner Program

Snap’s Advanced Partner Program offers qualifying agencies and partners the opportunity to work closely with Snapchat to create innovative solutions that build stronger full-funnel campaigns with the aim of driving better results. 

Select participating agencies and partners will be awarded an exclusive badge and given access to a curated package of educational and business opportunities that will help them advance their expertise on Snapchat.

Snap to benefit from spike in political ads

Analysts at the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) have forecast Snap's ad revenue to grow by 13.7% to $5.2 billion this year, up from a 0.1% increase in 2023 - as reported by Business Insider.

WARC puts the forecast revenue spike down to political advertising.

Snap's young US user base is attractive to political campaigns hoping to woo first-time voters. 

Instagram has added a new Notify sticker for creators

Instagram has added a new Notify sticker for creators, which will provide another way to help keep their audience informed of when they post in the app - reports Social Media Today 

Marta the marketing manager blowing up on LinkedIn

Meet Marta the product marketing manager who made a self promo video for LinkedIn after being laid off from her job in a start-up. Her video blew up. Watch the video and read more.