Researchers find a bot that generates fake nudes from photos of women; by July, 100K+ images of women had been transformed, shared in public Telegram channels
Women whose photos are uploaded have their likenesses converted into sexual imagery distributed through public Telegram channels, with no consent mechanism or takedown pathway available at the point of harm.
Telegram faces direct pressure as the hosting platform: Italy's regulator has named its bots as an investigation target, and researchers' follow-up reporting documents the company's inaction a full month after disclosure.
Second-order effects
Each documented failure of moderation invites replication — the single-bot finding of 2020 scaled to dozens of competing bots by 2024, because Telegram's channels give operators distribution without identity or friction.
Regulators who started with image bots must now contend with video-capable services, expanding the scope of any legal response from static imagery to full synthetic-media production pipelines.
Third-order effects
If platform-level enforcement stays reactive, explicit deepfakes become an entrenched service economy on messaging apps — shifting the burden to national investigations like Italy's, which act one jurisdiction at a time against globally distributed infrastructure.
The progression from one bot to a multi-million-user video ecosystem points toward synthetic media requiring a durable trust-and-verification layer, since detection and takedown alone have demonstrably not contained supply.
The trend: Nonconsensual synthetic imagery on messaging platforms is scaling from isolated tools to a commoditized ecosystem, outpacing both platform moderation and national regulatory response.
Writing this turned my blood cold. A Telegram bot allows men to create fake nude images of women from a single clothed photo. Over 680,000 women have been affected with about 104,000 images shared publicly, per new to research from @sensityai. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
“Patrini reiterated that while many people fear how deepfake technology could be used in politics, its actual widespread use is the exploitation of women online.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
i find this to be an abomination and utterly repugnant... but also wonder if there's a chance that this will become seen as so easy to do that no one cares about “leaked nudes” anymore like finding a badly chopped and glued magazine photo and yearbook photo? https://twitter.com/.…
This is unbelievably disturbing. @telegram was already a toxic platform, giving the very worst of society, including nazis, terrorists and other extremists, a chance to amplify themselves, but this is another level. How does @AppStore & @GooglePlay still distribute it? https://tw…
There have been approximately one billion conference panels and symposiums about how deepfakes will be used to swing elections, but the real threat has always been stuff like this. https://twitter.com/...
In case you missed it, I spoke with @JaneLytv about a deep fake tool on @telegram being deployed against women. Just as we've seen Telegram stand up to dictators; I hope we see them stand up for women and shut this bot down. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
I don't have anything funny to say here. I'm just furious and exhausted and deeply sad. It's not even the tech (which UGH), it's that this stuff is constant and just wears you down. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
An artificial intelligence service freely available on the Web has been used to transform more than 100,000 women's images into nude photos without the women's knowledge or consent, triggering fears of a new wave of damaging “deepfakes” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
UPDATE: A VK spokesperson told us, “Such communities have been blocked. We will run an additional check and block inappropriate content and communities.” The bot was also promoted using regular posts, not advertising tools. https://twitter.com/...
The fake-nude bot's leader victim-blames the women for posting photos of themselves online, telling me (in Russian): “If girls themselves behave cheekily, this is their desire.” Many of the women were pictured in normal clothes; one was in a wedding dress https://www.washingtonpo…
As @wiczipedia said, this shows that deepfake needs to be addressed beyond fears of national security & politics. The vast majority of deepfakes target women, which is “part and parcel of the broader abuse and harassment that women have to deal with.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com…
Deepfake software that creates fake “nudes” of women has turned up on Telegram as monetized chatbots. Users submit photos (mainly of people they know, taken from social media), and the bot spits out an AI-generated nude. Details here: https://www.theverge.com/...
Creating a fake nude is as easy as sending a pic from a phone. The bot assembles fake nudes into galleries; 25,000 have subscribed for daily updates. It weaponizes women's own photographs against them, sexualizing them for faceless strangers. I'm tired. https://www.washingtonpost…