FBI Agent Reveals How Easily AI Porn Posters Are Identified
▼ Summary
– Two men were arrested under the Take It Down Act after FBI agents found their illegal deepfake content by searching porn sites for hashtags like #AI and #Deepfakes.
– Suspect Arturo Hernandez allegedly posted 113 AI-generated sexualized albums viewed nearly one million times, featuring about 50 victims including public figures and women he knew from high school.
– Investigators identified Hernandez by linking a second account that reposted his content to his PayPal account and an IP address matching his iCloud login records.
– Evidence tying Hernandez to AI content of people he knew included him following one victim’s Instagram and saving the specific image used to create the deepfake.
– Hernandez attempted to hide his identity by using the nickname “Ryan” for his Gmail account, but police connected it to his other online accounts like Snapchat.
The earliest enforcement actions under the Take It Down Act (TIDA) reveal that law enforcement doesn’t need sophisticated methods to track down individuals who post and sell nonconsensual, sexualized deepfakes of women online. In fact, the FBI recently arrested two men after simply browsing porn sites and clicking on hashtags such as #AI or #Deepfakes, as well as titles like “AItits” or “AssAI.”
One of those arrested under TIDA was Arturo Hernandez, a 20-year-old accused of uploading 113 albums that garnered nearly one million views. These albums contained AI-generated sexualized images and videos of roughly 50 women. His victims ranged from political figures, actresses, and musicians to private individuals, including female classmates from his Texas high school and an Instagram friend.
Geo-location data proved crucial in identifying Hernandez as the suspect. In an affidavit, FBI Special Agent Christopher Powell detailed how investigators discovered a second account on the same porn site that had reposted all of Hernandez’s alleged uploads. That secondary account was linked to Hernandez’s PayPal account, according to the complaint. Moreover, an IP address frequently used to access that PayPal account matched the IP address Hernandez used to log into his iCloud, as shown in Apple records.
Although deepfakes of celebrities and politicians are often the most visible, law enforcement also sought evidence connecting Hernandez to AI-generated content featuring people he personally knew. This task was simplified when investigators found that Hernandez not only followed one victim’s Instagram account but had also saved the specific image used to create AI porn content that had been viewed over 36,000 times. That image was stored in a folder on his own Instagram account.
Hernandez attempted to obscure his identity by registering his Gmail account under the nickname “Ryan” instead of his real first name. However, agents noted that he used the same “Ryan” alias elsewhere online, including on his Snapchat account, making the disguise easy to unravel.
(Source: Ars Technica)
