Opinion: The online degradation of women and girls that we meet with a shrug [Video]

Alarms are blaring about artificial intelligence deepfakes that manipulate voters, like the robocall sounding like President Joe Biden that went to New Hampshire households, or the fake video of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump.

Yet there’s actually a far bigger problem with deepfakes that we haven’t paid enough attention to: deepfake nude videos and photos that humiliate celebrities and unknown children alike. One recent study found that 98% of deepfake videos online were pornographic and that 99% of those targeted were women or girls.

Faked nude imagery of Swift rattled the internet in January, but this goes way beyond her: Companies make money by selling advertising and premium subscriptions for websites hosting fake sex videos of famous female actresses, singers, influencers, princesses and politicians. Google directs traffic to these graphic videos, and victims have little recourse.

Sometimes the victims are underage girls.

Francesca Mani, a 14-year-old high school sophomore in New Jersey, told me she was …