Prof Clare McGlynn

A close up of the Grok AI app on the homescreen of a mobile phone. Text on the image reads: "Research by Professor Clare McGlynn is behind a new law criminalising the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfake images."

A new law to criminalise the creation of non-consensual sexual deepfake images is now in force in England and Wales. Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School, has played a key role in the legislation. Discover more 👉 tinyurl.com/23evkahf

Close-up of a man's hand over an illuminated mobile phone screen.

New research led by Prof Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School, and Prof Fiona Vera-Gray, London Metropolitan University, shows women are being forced to change their behaviours due to the high levels of flashing and cyberflashing they experience 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

Stop image-based abuse

Over the last 18 months, survivor and campaigner Jodie*, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, #NotYourPorn, Professor Clare McGlynn and Glamour UK have campaigned for action to stop deepfake abuse. Today, a new law comes into force making it illegal.

Today following months of campaigning by survivor
Jodie, @evawuk.bsky.social, #NotYourPorn, @claremcglynn.bsky.social and @glamouruk.bsky.social, a new law comes into force criminalising deepfake abuse.

This is a welcome and long-overdue step for survivors, but criminalisation alone is not enough.

The Online Safety Act introduced the obligations regarding sharing of intimate images without consent. Then, last summer, the new law on creation was introduced, but only comes into effect this week.

I hear you ask, I thought nudification apps had been 'banned'?

Do we need to change the law to clearly cover chatbots? Ideally yes. There are current laws that could be used, but also we adopt reforms, quickly.

Last November, Ofcom published *guidance* on violence against women and girls. The problem? It's only guidance and not legally binding. This should change. It should be made mandatory as advocated by @evawuk.bsky.social

Now we come to enforcement. What about the role of UK regulator Ofcom?

Should #X have prevented this from happening? Yes. Very clearly.

Is #X responsible for allowing #Grok to do this? Absolutely.

Is sharing sexually explicit deepfakes without consent a criminal offence? Yes.

What about a user assisting and encouraging #Grok to commit the offence of sharing a non-consensual intimate image?

What is an 'intimate image' under English law? It includes sexual images which may cover the scenarios where there are multiple prompts generating a sexual image.

When the law is enforced, what will it cover?

Is it an offence to create sexually explicit deepfakes without consent? Not yet in England and Wales. Despite the Government and Ofcom saying that this is the current law.

Surely it's unlawful to ask #Grok to 'put her in a bikini'? Many people have been asking about the legal position of the #Grok #X abuse of women and girls.
There's been a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. Here's my take on the current law in the UK and how it applies... #nudify #bikini #enough

Addressing the Gendered Harms of AI and the Tech Industry - Prof Clare McGlynn - Now and Men How are artificial intelligence and other technologies exacerbating misogyny and undermining women’s rights and safety, and what can we do about it?

In Aug, @claremcglynn.bsky.social explained how AI and the big tech companies are exacerbating gender inequality, including enabling and profiting from widespread misogyny, pornography, and violence against women through technologies like deepfakes and ‘nudify’ apps: nowandmen.net/episode/clar...

Visual of Clare McGlynn on the left side of the image in colour, with the rest of the Advisory Council Members in black and white on the right side.

📢 New week, new highlight of a member of our Advisory Council!

🟣 @claremcglynn.bsky.social is a Professor of Law at @durham.ac.uk, working on #TFGBV and influencing laws on image-based and #deepfake sexual abuse with her research.

🌟 Excited to have her on board!

This week I hosted some wonderful scholars for an interdisciplinary workshop on r*pe in law and culture. Thanks to @manongarcia.bsky.social @veragraf.bsky.social @claremcglynn.bsky.social and all the participants for making it such an enriching and encouraging exchange.

Half of young adults have been choked during sex, survey finds Mother of an Aberdeen University student who took her own life after abusive boyfriend throttled her warns that ‘strangulation’ is never safe

Fiona Drouet, whose 18-year-old daughter Emily took her own life at Aberdeen University after her boyfriend subjected her to abuse and episodes of choking, warned that the practice was “never safe” and urged young people not to underestimate its risks

'The way that I always describe it to people is imagine a woman walking into a pub and suddenly you can take her image and put it into a sexually explicit content of her.' Baroness Charlotte Owen on why it's Image Based Sexual Abuse, not Deepfake Porn. Listen now podfollow.com/shamis-speak...

Though even in those contexts, important to emphasise that consent does not protect you from harm including damage to brain functioning.

The choking porn ban is not enough The government announced that it will prohibit "vile and dangerous" strangulation pornography

Article claims new law on sexual choking-strangulation targets 'hardcore BDSM'. But main concern is material on mainstream sites portraying it as safe & entirely lacking the safety protocols/consent of BDSM @arielledomb.bsky.social @newstatesman1913.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/politics/hea...

My comment in @theguardian.com on why the new law requiring porn and social media platforms to remove choking/strangulation content is very welcome.

"..all the training data is around women's bodies. So if you put a man's image into the model, it would simply produce a man's head on a woman's body." Listen to the full episode with Baroness Charlotte Own podfollow.com/shamis-speak...

'Choking' in porn has become the new normal. Here’s why a new UK law banning it is so vital | Clare McGlynn Strangulation during sex damages young women’s brain health and breeds deep gender inequality. But the real test will be its enforcement, says Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

My comment in @theguardian.com on why the new law requiring porn and social media platforms to remove choking/strangulation content is very welcome.

Prnhub's PR as impressive as ever, with the media just lapping it up.
No challenge to Prnhub's claims it's content is legal & consensual. What about all the sleep prn (aka rape) still there? It's T&C prohibit 'depicting' children, a cursory look finds a lot.
It's the content that matters #despair

a cartoon character says someday in front of a tent ALT: a cartoon character says someday in front of a tent

My dream today? That all the really clever and creative people working for the likes of Prnhub worked instead for regulators and government, using their talents and ideas to imagine and realise a world without abusive, misogynist, racist prn that was normalising sexual violence.

Prnhub's PR as impressive as ever, with the media just lapping it up.
No challenge to Prnhub's claims it's content is legal & consensual. What about all the sleep prn (aka rape) still there? It's T&C prohibit 'depicting' children, a cursory look finds a lot.
It's the content that matters #despair