Progressive New York congresswoman describes resurfacing of trauma when seeing explicit materials with her image transposed on to them
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has described her horror at discovering – midway through a discussion with aides during a car journey in February – that she had been transposed into a “deepfake porn” simulation generated by artificial intelligence and posted on X.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the progressive congresswoman said the experience of coming up close to a depiction of herself performing a sex act had shown her that being deepfaked was “not as imaginary as people want to make it seem”.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
