A deepfake pornographic video of Northern Irish politician Cara Hunter was created and widely circulated on WhatsApp and social media just weeks before the 2022 Assembly elections, causing harassment and potentially threatening democratic processes.
In April 2022, just three weeks before the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, a deepfake pornographic video was created showing politician Cara Hunter appearing to engage in sexual acts. The 40-second video was widely circulated on WhatsApp and social media platforms, being shared thousands of times across Northern Ireland's 1.8 million population. Hunter, who was 26 at the time and running for the SDLP in East Londonderry, received numerous vulgar messages from strangers and experienced harassment on the street, with one man approaching her to request sexual acts while referencing the video. The video was so convincing that even some family members initially questioned whether it was real. When Hunter contacted police, they were unable to help due to lack of cybercrime technology and legal frameworks. The incident occurred during a critical campaign period, forcing Hunter to continue door-to-door canvassing while dealing with the psychological impact. She ultimately won her seat by just a few votes. Six months later, Hunter received 15 additional AI-generated deepfake images showing her in underwear via Instagram. The perpetrator was never identified, and the incident highlighted gaps in legislation around deepfake creation and the disproportionate targeting of women in politics through image-based sexual abuse.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed