Stormont MLA targeted by deepfake video urges legal clamp down
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A Northern Ireland MLA who feared a deepfake video would ruin her political career has urged action to clamp down on online abuse. Cara Hunter was targeted in April 2022 when a fake video was created to look as if she was taking part in pornographic activity with a man and shared around in thousands of messages.
The SDLP East Londonderry MLA has urged Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long for a comprehensive review of law around online violence against women and girls. She also called for Ms Long to press the UK government for a timeline in the promised roll out of legislation to ban the creation of sexually explicit fake content.
It came during a series of four motions put forward at Stormont by members of the SDLP Official Opposition focused on ending discrimination and violence against women. Ms Hunter, 29, recently spoke out about being targeted by a deepfake just weeks before an Assembly election, and despite knowing it was impossible, she said she was receiving messages from scores of strangers who had seen the video, and felt her political career was crumbling in front of her eyes.
She said at that time she approached police but was told they did not have the cyber crime technology to find out where the video came from, and said she felt like she was “on her own”. She said the video was shared thousands and thousands of times across WhatsApp along with real pictures of her, which prompted scores of abusive messages, adding it felt like overnight she was wearing a scarlet letter with some starting to avoid her.
