Major websites including Reddit and Pornhub have moved to clamp down on the practice of posting fake pornographic videos where a user superimposes a person's face over actors in a X-rated film.
The videos, which are known as "deepfakes", had a big following on Reddit, with a forum on the site dedicated to them. That forum, or subreddit as it's known on the site, has now been shut down.
"We want to let you know that we have made some updates to our site-wide rules against 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," Reddit said in a post on its site Wednesday.
The website said it "prohibits the dissemination of images or video depicting any person in a state of nudity or engaged in any act of sexual conduct apparently created or posted without their permission, including depictions that have been faked.
"Images or video of intimate parts of a person's body, even if the person is clothed or in public, are also not allowed if apparently created or posted without their permission and contextualized in a salacious manner... Additionally, do not post images or video of another person for the specific purpose of faking explicit content or soliciting 'lookalike' pornography."
Deepfakes involve using software to create digital images of a person's face, then using artificial intelligence technology to superimpose that image onto another person in a video. One such software is called FakeApp.
Reddit has been on a drive to clean up its service, which has come under fire for not dealing with inappropriate material.
The website's move follows online pornographic video site Pornhub, which said it would ban deepfakes.
"We do not tolerate any non-consensual content on the site and we remove all said content as soon as we are made aware of it," a spokesperson told Motherboard via email earlier this week.
"Non-consensual content directly violates our TOS (terms of service) and consists of content such as revenge porn, deepfakes or anything published without a person's consent or permission."