Wednesday's Jenna Ortega says she quit Twitter because of explicit deepfakes of her as a child

[Enter Stage Rite]

 

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Jenna Ortega—known for her roles in Netflix’s Wednesday, Scream, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Jane the Virgin, and most recently in Sabrina Carpenter’s Taste music video—revealed the distressing reason behind her decision to delete her Twitter account, now known as X. As a child, she’d been bombarded with explicit AI-generated images of herself, which ultimately led her to leave the platform.

 

The actress recounted receiving unsolicited messages of a sexual nature as a minor. In fact, she said the first-ever direct message she opened was at age 12, and it was an image of a man’s genitals. This experience, compounded by the influx of disturbing images following the success of her Netflix series Wednesday, prompted her to deactivate her account two to three years ago.

 

“I hate AI,” Ortega expressed. And although she acknowledged the technology can be “used for incredible things,” such as early cancer detection, she also condemned its exploitation for creating harmful content. Her personal experience with deepfakes was “disgusting” and “uncomfortable,” and it took an emotional toll on her.

 

The issue of AI-generated explicit content has become increasingly prevalent, with bad actors manipulating technology to create sexual images using photos of individuals.

 

“Did I like being 14 and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty edited content of me as a child? No. It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong,” she said.

 

• https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/24/magazine/jenna-ortega-interview.html 
• https://petapixel.com/2024/08/27/jenna-ortega-deleted-twitter-after-receiving-explicit-ai-images-of-herself/ 
• https://ew.com/jenna-ortega-quit-twitter-after-getting-explicit-ai-photos-of-herself-8701051 
• https://www.benzinga.com/general/entertainment/24/08/40546266/jenna-ortega-reveals-her-terrifying-ai-nightmare-says-she-deleted-her-twitter-account-after 

 

 

Image: Featureflash | Dreamstime.com