Deepfakes weaponised to target Pakistan's women leaders

In Pakistan, where media literacy is poor, deepfakes are being weaponised to smear women in the public sphere with sexual innuendo deeply damaging to their reputations in a country with conservative mores.

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In this photograph taken on October 21, 2024, Nighat Dad, a Pakistan-based digital rights activist, works on her laptop during an interview with AFP in Lahore. Deepfakes -- which manipulate genuine audio, photos or video of people into false likenesses -- are becoming increasingly convincing and easier to make as artificial intelligence (AI) enters the mainstream. In Pakistan, where media literacy is poor, they are being weaponised to smear women in the public sphere with sexual innuendo deeply damaging to their reputations in a country with conservative mores. (Photo by Amna YASEEN / AFP) /

2024-12-03 10:03:57

Pakistani politician Azma Bukhari is haunted by a counterfeit image of herself -- a sexualised deepfake video published to discredit her role as one of the nation's few female leaders.

"I was shattered when it came into my knowledge," said 48-year-old Bukhari, the information minister of Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab.

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