Lawmakers around the world are turning their attention to deepfake sexual abuse to reduce its prevalence and provide redress to victims. Thus far, both civil and criminal law reforms have tended to focus on the distribution of this material.
Far less attention has been given to targeting the root cause, namely the creation of these «sexual digital forgeries». In their upcoming article, Clare M. S. McGlynn and Rüya Tuna Toparlak provide the first comprehensive examination of the criminalisation of the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes, advancing the idea that this phenomenon should be understood as the «new voyeurism». They explore the harmful nature of this behaviour including the «invisible threat» of deepfake sexual abuse now pervading the lives of all women and girls and justify the deployment of criminal sanctions. This is followed by an analysis of the laws in jurisdictions which currently criminalise creating sexually explicit deepfakes.
In this presentation, Rüya Tuna Toparlak (PhD candidate at University of Luzern) will talk about the current epidemic of sexual digital forgeries, their legal standing and legal policy decisions around the world to combat the abuse as well as the applicable laws in Switzerland. The lecture will be followed by lunch and discussion.
Further information and registration
_____
The mission of Digitalization Initiative of the Zurich Higher Education Institutions (DIZH) is to promote cooperation on digitalization issues between higher education institutions in Zurich, thereby strengthening the greater Zurich area as a hub for research and business. The University of Zurich (UZH), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH) are part of the DIZH network, which aims to advance research and innovation on digitalization by using interdisciplinary approaches.