Sign in with Apple was launched back in 2019 as a faster, more convenient, and privacy-focused way of registering with an app or website. But a new report says that it was being offered by multiple deepfake nudes sites.
The inclusion of sign-in options for Apple, Google, and others has been used to create a veneer of respectability for the distasteful sites used to create non-consensual nude images …
The growing problem of deepfakes
Deepfakes are AI-generated images, audio, or video in which a real person is digitally altered in some way.
These can be used for a variety of unpleasant purposes, from making a politician appear to say sketchy things, to creating a fake nude image of someone to humiliate or intimidate them. In some cases, high school boys have used them to create CSAM images of female classmates.
Deepfakes are becoming increasingly difficult to detect as the software grows more sophisticated.
Sign in with Apple available for six sites
Wired found that six of the biggest deepfake sites specifically geared to creating fake nudes offered Sign in with Apple options. Other sign-ins offered were from Google, Discord, Line, and Patreon.
The site says that the inclusion of these options makes it appear that they are approved by these companies.
A WIRED analysis found 16 of the biggest so-called undress and “nudify” websites using the sign-in infrastructure from Google, Apple, Discord, Twitter, Patreon, and Line. This approach allows people to easily create accounts on the deepfake websites—offering them a veneer of credibility—before they pay for credits and generate images […]
The sign-in tools analyzed by WIRED, which are deployed through APIs and common authentication methods, allow people to use existing accounts to join the deepfake websites. Google’s login system appeared on 16 websites, Discord’s appeared on 13, and Apple’s on six.
Apple terminated the developer accounts
Offering the Sign in with Apple option requires a developer account. Once Wired alerted Apple, the company responded by immediately terminating all of the developer accounts used in this way.
After being contacted by WIRED, spokespeople for Discord and Apple said they have removed the developer accounts connected to their websites. Google said it will take action against developers when it finds its terms have been violated. Patreon said it prohibits accounts that allow explicit imagery to be created, and Line confirmed it is investigating but said it could not comment on specific websites. X did not reply to a request for comment about the way its systems are being used.
Image: 9to5Mac collage of images from Apple and James Lee on Unsplash
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