Deepfakes are videos in which the subject is face-swapped using machine-learning algorithms. The practice was created by Redditor Deepfakes, who launched a dedicated subreddit to share the videos in November 2017. In January 2018, the FakeApp desktop application was released as a tool for creating the digitally altered videos.
On November 2nd, 2017, Redditor deepfakes created the /r/deepfakes[1] subreddit as a place to share his digitally-altered sexually explicit videos in which the subject's face was swapped with a celebrity or public figure. According to the Redditor, the technology uses open-source libraries Keras and TensorFlow to perform the face-swaps.
On January 8th, 2018, the deepfakeapp Reddit account announced the launch of FakeApp, an application described as "a desktop tool for creating deepfakes."[2] That month, the /r/fakeapp[3] subreddit dedicated to discussions about the software gathered upwards of 2,500 subscribers. On January 30th, the /r/facesets[7] subreddit was launched for users to share sets of face images extracted for the creation of deepfakes.
On January 25th, 2018 Redditor [8] derpfakes posted a video in the /r/deepfakes subreddit, a community where in which people use a deep-learning application called FakeApp to replace the faces of people in videos, of Andy Samberg’s replaced with Nicolas Cage’s. The video (shown below) received more than 600 upvotes (97% upvoted) and 20 comments.
Several days later, derpfakes pasted Cage’s face onto Amy Adam’s from the film Man of Steel. The post (shown below, left) received more than 2,000 points (98% upvoted) and 90 comments. Additionally, on January 26th, derpfakes put Cage’s head on Harrison Ford’s in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark (shown below, right).
On December 11th, 2017, the Vice technology news site Motherboard[4] published an article titled "AI-Assisted Fake Porn Is Here and We’re All Fucked," which contained interviews with various experts about the ethical implications of deepfakes technology. On January 24th, Motherboard[5] published a follow-up article on the FakeApp program titled "We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now." On January 31st, 2018, YouTuber Philip DeFranco uploaded a video discussing DeepFakes and FakeApp.
On January 27th, 2018, the Derpfakes YouTube channel was released, which features work-safe videos created with deepfakes software. Within one month, the channel received more than 400,000 video views and 1,300 subscribers.
On January 31st, 2018, the media-hosting site Gfycat began removing all deepfakes-related media. That day, Motherboard[6] published an article about the purge, which included a statement from a Gfycat spokesperson who revealed the company was "actively removing this content."
On February 7th, 2018, the /r/deepfakes subreddit was banned by Reddit staff for violating the site's content policy "against involuntary pornography" (shown below). Additionally, Reddit also removed the /r/deepfakensfw, /r/youtubefakes, /r/CelebFakes, /r/doppelbangher, /r/facesets and /r/xray subreddits.
In a statement to the Vice tech news site Motherboard,[13] a Reddit spokesperson explained the reasoning behind the new site-wide restriction:
"Reddit strives to be a welcoming, open platform for all by trusting our users to maintain an environment that cultivates genuine conversation. As of February 7, 2018, we have made two updates to our site-wide policy regarding involuntary pornography and sexual or suggestive content involving minors. These policies were previously combined in a single rule; they will now be broken out into two distinct ones. Communities focused on this content and users who post such content will be banned from the site."
That day, a thread about the banning reached the front page of /r/KotakuInAction.[9] Meanwhile, Redditor admin landoflobsters submitted a post to /r/announcements[14] about the site-wide rules update. Also on February 7th, several news sites published articles about the ban, including The Verge,[10] Inverse[11] and BoingBoing.[12]
Following the ban, many of the users moved to the /deepfakes/ board on 8chan[18] and the /v/DeepFakes community on Voat.[17]