Cheer Mom Used Deepfake Nudes and Threats to Harass Daughter’s Teammates, Police Say
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Cheer mom used deepfake nudes and threats to harass daughter's teammates, police say:
An anonymous cyberbully in Pennsylvania seemed to have one goal in mind: Force a trio of cheerleaders off their formidable local team, the Victory Vipers.
Doctored images were sent to the coach of the competitive squad that appeared to show the teen girls in humiliating or compromising situations that could get them kicked off the team, like appearing nude, drinking alcohol and using drugs, according to the criminal complaint.
In anonymous texts and calls, the bully told one girl "you should kill yourself."
When police unmasked the alleged culprit late last year, they found the bully hiding within the Victory Viper circle.
Raffaela Spone, a local cheer mom whose daughter is on the team, was charged last week with three misdemeanor counts of cyber harassment of a child and related offenses, according to the Bucks County District Attorney.
[...] If convicted, Spone could face between six months to a year in prison, though Weintraub, the district attorney, said the maximum penalty for low-level misdemeanors is unlikely.
Citron said the criminal justice system still lags behind deepfake technology when it comes to investigations and prosecutions. She and Weintraub each said deepfakes and similar technology pose a broader threat to the truth by muddying the information ecosystem.
"It's disturbing to me because we rely on being able to authenticate evidence as a foundation of the criminal justice system," Weintraub said. "If everyday people are capable of using deepfakes, that's going to make doing our job a lot more difficult."
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.