Thai-Belgian singer fights illegal deepfake pornographic content

A renowned Thai-Belgian singer lodged a formal complaint yesterday at the Technology Crime Suppression Division of the police over deepfake pornographic content. Violette Wautier alleged her likeness was illicitly appropriated for the creation of deepfake pornographic content, which was subsequently circulated online.

Accompanied by her legal representative, the 30 year old singer expressed her deep concern over the misuse of her image in both photos and videos. The said content was brought to her attention by her fan base, who had encountered the explicit material online.

“I was shocked in the first place. As a woman, I feel bad about it and I was afraid that I could be misunderstood.”

She proceeded to caution against forwarding such illegal content. Beyond her distress, the singer implored other victims of similar misdeeds to take action legally ensuring the culprits face the consequences of their actions, reported Bangkok Post.

Wautier made her singing debut with the audition on season 2 of The Voice Thailand in 2013. Then, she started off her career in both singing and acting. Her notable milestones are winning the Suphannahong Award for Best Supporting Actress in Thailand (2016) and her first English album Glitter and Smoke (2020).

This isn’t the first time a person’s profile has been used for fake porn. In November last year, police arrested a Thai man in Bangkok for distributing and selling pornography of a man resembling a Thai singer on social media.

ThaiRath reported that a male Thai singer had filed a complaint with Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) officials that his image and reputation had been damaged by pornography shared online. A person who posted the video claimed that the man in the porn was the Thai singer when in fact it was a lookalike.

The Thai singer reportedly wishes to remain anonymous. He was famous in the 90s and no longer works in the Thai music industry.