Nowadays anyone can create a hyper-realistic porn video with artificial intelligence (AI). All you need is a photo of anyone, an email, and between $10 and $50. These are the requirements of the already 96 apps to get unlimited “convincing deep nudes” for a year. “Adding someone to a porn scene will be a breeze,” says one of the most popular apps on its website, with 1.5 million monthly visits. “It’s the best of the best because it’s so simple and powerful,” describes another. It is precisely this ease of creating and distributing content without consent that worries experts in the region, where digital gender-based violence is becoming a crime in several Latin American countries and where commitment to preventing these behaviors is even more volatile.
The perverted use of social networks and virtual reality sparked a debate about whether or not to classify these behaviors, which mainly affect women; because in countries like Mexico they take care of 89% of the victims. Generative artificial intelligence has reopened the discussion: Is making the abusive use of intimate images a crime the solution? For María Camila Correa Flórez, professor of criminal law at the Faculty of Law at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, it is only a small part: “Broad public measures are required that prevent, not just punish.” Criminal law can take up to one intervene at some point: to make people understand that it is a crime. Still, it’s a good first step.”
However, Colombia has one of the least guaranteed laws on the continent when it comes to this matter. Like Nicaragua and Venezuela, gender-based online violence is not enshrined in any legal framework. The production or dissemination of sexual images without consent is not a crime, although in exceptional cases some criminal figures – extortion, computer crimes or hate crimes – can be used to punish such behavior.
Argentina and Chile, on the other hand, have a more protectionist legal framework for girls, boys and youth, but there is a major gap in defending adult women’s rights. Since 2018, Brazil has criminalized the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, and Peru has also included the offenses of online sexual harassment and extortion in its penal code. Mexico is one of the countries most concerned about online violence against women and has an extensive package of federal and state reforms to sanction these practices. The so-called Olimpia Law is known in honor of Olimpia Coral Melo, a victim of the illicit distribution in 2014 posting a video with sexual content.
However, despite groundbreaking legislation in Mexico, this crime remains elusive. “You can have laws and elements, but implementing the verdict is the hardest part,” says Elvia Karina Ramírez Juárez, a Mexican trial attorney, via video call. “It sounds very nice on paper, but these videos are very unlikely to be downloaded from the network. The gap between paper and reality is huge.” Julio César Bonilla Gutiérrez, Ombudsman for the Mexico City Transparency Institute, acknowledges that “there is still a long way to go”: “Although the legislation represents progress, the reforms to much better way to combat cyberbullying.” The danger of doing nothing is that digital violence often turns into physical violence.”
Women who don’t report
With or without criminalization: So far, only very few cases of gender-specific violence on the Internet have been cleared up by the courts in the region. The lack of justice is a result of bureaucracy in complaints mechanisms, fears of re-victimisation, and feelings of shame and distrust in the judicial authorities and their lack of expertise. “The hurdles to prosecuting violence against women online and offline are the same: women still don’t come forward because they don’t believe them or continue to think it’s about the privacy of the couple,” explains Luz Patricia Mejía, technical secretary of the Follow-up mechanism of the Belém do Pará Convention. “The only difference is that technology is moving too fast.”
Public policies, criminal penalties and discussions with the big platforms. These are some of the premises that Mejía proposes for regulating artificial intelligence on gender issues. “We must be prepared for debates that never existed, such as that freedom of expression, which is the pillar of democracy, cannot continue to be untouchable.” We are transitioning into a new world that will force us to to reconsider these models.” And he adds: “States have a more limited ability than Twitter and Meta to really regulate.” You would have to deal with applications worldwide. There is no other way”.
Cecilia Celeste Danesi, UPSA researcher and author of The Algorithm Empire, points out that regulation amounts to information rather than prohibition: “Proposals promoted by the European Union and the United States include the addition of a watermark that informed that the generated content is incorrect; Linked to this is the right of consumers to be informed.” And he adds: “AI could even be part of the solution if it is used to find this content.”
For Katya Vera Morales, gender expert at the Organization of American States (OAS) cybersecurity program, it is necessary to put the victims at the center of politics: “Many of them do not want to denounce and go through the whole process of revictimization that this usually entails. Sometimes they just want their photos to stop being distributed, for the content to be removed, for the sextortion to stop… We have to ask ourselves: what does access to justice mean for the victims? And design a course of action based on the answers we get.”
Network Complaints
Although the lawsuits have yet to address this threat, dozens of women are taking to social media to criticize being victims of generative AI. “The law [Olimpia] Compensation and care for the victims should be created. And it doesn’t. You have to take care of the servers. It’s true that stopping the flow doesn’t stop the damage, but it limits it,” explains Eri Gutiérrez, content creator and technology specialist, over the phone. “The data generated in the applications remain on the servers and they are constantly perfecting the technology so that the ‘user’ has a broader repertoire at his disposal. Horrible things are seen on the deep web…”.
“It’s incredibly easy to create the most attractive girls with just a few words… and they’ll do anything you tell them to. Go crazy!”. A forum comparing “fake porn” or fictional porn apps exists an application that creates sexy avatars of women with photos provided by the user. The only “but” is that you have To so that the images generated are not blurry. It costs less than 10 dollars. Ramírez, a Mexican litigator, believes that the key in these cases is showing accountability: “And only analysts are having this enormous debate, not politicians. In Mexico there has never been a restriction on apps or social networks. And frankly, I see it it not near.
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👩🏻💼A woman to follow: Raquel Bernal
Raquel Bernal, Chancellor of the Universidad de los Andes. Santiago Mesa
By Lorraine Arroyo
Raquel Bernal is the first rector of the Universidad de los Andes, one of the most important in Colombia. As she herself recently said in a speech during the 2023 graduation ceremony, she relies on a 75-year history and 23 men to hold the position. According to her, if she’s succeeded, it’s because her parents have done a “good job” for her since she was a child. And so she grew up believing that anything is possible: she received her degree in economics from the Universidad de los Andes and her doctorate from the University of New York. But he recognized in that speech that reaching that position wasn’t easy, nor was it easy to lead in an environment that is still very masculine.
I recommend watching the full speech on YouTube. In it, she shows what gender inequality looks like in Latin America and encourages her students to work for equal rights for all. Above all, however, given the challenges he has experienced in his position, he urges a different type of leadership. Here is the excerpt from the speech:
“I confess that sometimes I feel the need to suppress myself in order to fit into this role. Even other women sometimes tell me that I need to be more vehement and not accept mistakes because it makes me look weak. It took me a while to realize that nobody wins when I do it. I think everyone benefits from different and even complementary leadership styles. Interestingly, I don’t think all men favor a stronger organizational style. Where mistakes are not accepted and overly assertive conversation is always preferable to active listening. Colleagues have told me that it is sometimes exhausting for them too. Assistant Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Supreme Court said, “We must not confuse kindness with lack of character.” This means we are transforming the work environment in ways that are also beneficial for men when women assume leadership roles appropriate to their personality and take over our feelings.”
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