My NSFW video has partial occlusion: deepfakes and the technological production of non-consensual pornography

Abstract

Although open source software (OSS) lowers barriers to participation, it is also a site of toxic geek masculinity, which can be seen in the emergence of non-consensual fake pornography, or deepfakes. Drawing from studies of non-consensual pornography and past research on gender on GitHub, a popular social coding platform for OSS, we assert that the toxic geek masculinity observed in the deepfakes community is driven by meritocratic ideals and androcentric culture in OSS. To investigate this toxicity, we conduct a case study of faceswap software repositories on GitHub. We identify five themes: abstraction of human subjects, disassociation from porn, selective self-presentation, community, and indifference to harm. Taken together, these themes suggest that deepfakes serve as a site of toxic geek masculinity, which is disguised through abstraction and technological focus. Based on these findings, we make suggestions for future research that can inform the identification and mitigation of harm in OSS.

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