Fil-Am Florida official opens up about being a victim of deepfake porn
Filipino-American Sabrina Javellana was a rising star in the political scene of Florida when she became the victim of deepfake porn.
The young Javellana was one of the youngest to be elected in Florida as she won a seat in the Hallandale Beach city commission in 2018 at the age of 21.
She was no stranger to receiving hateful messages online being a Democrat with progressive views in a majority Republican state. But on February 5, 2021, she got an unusual message saying images of her were being spread on the web.
In an article in the New York Times, Javellana detailed her experience being a victim of deepfake porn, from how she discovered the photos to reporting it to authorities, and eventually getting a state law passed.
Deepfake is an image or recording that has been altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone.
Doctored images from her Instagram were shared on platforms like the notorious forum site 4chan but in the spread photos, she wasn't wearing clothes.
"I felt like I didn't have a choice in what happened to me or what happened to my body," she told The Times. "I didn't have any control over the one thing I'm in every day."
Javellana's work started to get affected as she would feel anxious at press events, worrying that images of her would be turned into pornography even when she wore blazers and high-cut blouses.
When she sought help from the Florida Department Law Enforcement's cybercrime division, the laws in the state proved to be insufficient in protecting people from the creation of deepfakes.
A year later, she learned about Florida state Senator Lauren Book's bill seeking to criminalize non-consensual deepfakes. Book herself was a victim of the manipulated images.
On June 24, 2022, Senate Bill 1898 was signed into law and those who circulated deepfakes could be charged, fined, and possibly jailed.
Despite this, deepfake images of Javellana continued to be shared online and she resigned to leave them in the past.
"At this point, they're going to keep popping up," she told the New York Times. "It just never ends. I just have to accept it."
Currently, Javellana is working as an aid to the mayor of Broward County as she didn't run for reelection to the city commission.
In January 2024, the US Congress filed the DEFIANCE Act which, if enacted, will let victims claim damages and file restraining orders against their harassers.
Public personalities like Taylor Swift have been victims of deepfake pornography. As manipulated images of the megastar made the rounds on X in January, the platform expressed that "posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited" and that it had a zero-tolerance policy towards such content.