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GitHub Censors "Sexually Obscene" DeepNude Code

posted by martyb on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the information-wants-to-be-[clothing]-free dept.

takyon writes:

Github is banning copies of 'deepfakes' porn app DeepNude

GitHub is banning code from DeepNude, the app that used AI to create fake nude pictures of women. Motherboard, which first reported on DeepNude last month, confirmed that the Microsoft-owned software development platform won't allow DeepNude projects. GitHub told Motherboard that the code violated its rules against "sexually obscene content," and it's removed multiple repositories, including one that was officially run by DeepNude's creator.

DeepNude was originally a paid app that created nonconsensual nude pictures of women using technology similar to AI "deepfakes." The development team shut it down after Motherboard's report, saying that "the probability that people will misuse it is too high." However, as we noted last week, copies of the app were still accessible online — including on GitHub.

Late that week, the DeepNude team followed suit by uploading the core algorithm (but not the actual app interface) to the platform. "The reverse engineering of the app was already on GitHub. It no longer makes sense to hide the source code," wrote the team on a now-deleted page. "DeepNude uses an interesting method to solve a typical AI problem, so it could be useful for researchers and developers working in other fields such as fashion, cinema, and visual effects."

Also at The Register, Vice, and Fossbytes.

Previously: "Deep Nude" App Removed By Developers After Brouhaha

Related: AI-Generated Fake Celebrity Porn Craze "Blowing Up" on Reddit
Discord Takes Down "Deepfakes" Channel, Citing Policy Against "Revenge Porn"
My Struggle With Deepfakes
Deep Fakes Advance to Only Needing a Single Two Dimensional Photograph

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:05AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:05AM (#865698) Journal

    It sounds like your definition of censorship includes a government component but that is not necessary.

    Not at all.

    M-W defines censorship as the institution, system, or practice of censoring which is itself to examine in order to suppress (see suppress sense 2) or delete anything considered objectionable and supress sense 2 being to keep from public knowledge: such as to keep secret; to stop or prohibit the publication or revelation of;

    Since GitHub/MS cannot keep DeepNude from public knowledge (in the sense 2 of suppress), it follows that GitHub/MS - want it or not - cannot censor.

    How is Github banning DeepNude because they don't want to be associated with it because it is inconvenient for them not censorship?

    The very same way as me - as a private person in the eyes of law - saying "I don't want to do business with you for reasons the current law allow me to refuse such a relation" is equally not censorship.

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