Australian advocate reports distress from nonconsensual deepfake videos
An Australian advocate described panic and sustained distress after discovering sexual deepfake videos bearing her identity. Earlier abuse involved edited still photographs. This record concerns the later AI-video episode, which was already reported in September 2018.
- AI system
- Unidentified video tool
- Occurred
- Event date unknown
- Reported
- 19 September 2018
- Event location
- Unknown
- What the AI did
- Depicted or impersonated the person
- Reported harm
- Psychological DistressExploitation or Abuse
- Whose AI use
- Someone else’s AI use
- Setting
- Identity · Privacy
- Evidence
- AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
- 3 claims: 3 reported. 3 open questions
- People reported harmed
- 1 person
AI system as recorded: Unspecified deepfake video tool
Reported harm
The advocate reported distress and nonconsensual sexual impersonation.
Outcome
UnknownMedia Coverage
What remains unknown
- The start date is unresolved. Dazed says videos appeared within the preceding year; ELLE’s relative chronology is inconsistent.
- The earlier edited stills are not independently established as AI-generated.
- The creator and software are unknown. No employment loss is established.
What the evidence supports
AI involvement: reported. Both accounts explicitly describe her videos as deepfakes. Generic software examples do not identify the tool used against her.
3 claims: 3 reported. What the statuses mean
Reported The advocate described panic and distress after finding fabricated sexual videos identified as depicting her.
Causal attribution. Participant account; independent verification of the reported consequence is unavailable.
- elle.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Opening account of the email and discovery, then the paragraph describing continuing pain (L35-L39 and L56).
Reported Dazed had reported her deepfake-video abuse by 19 September 2018.
Causal attribution. Reporting date only; the start of the video abuse is unresolved.
- dazeddigital.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Publication date and opening paragraphs on Noelle Martin (L37-L62).
Reported She later described feeling more positive as she reclaimed control through advocacy.
Causal attribution. Self-described improvement, not a clinical outcome.
- elle.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
Closing personal-account paragraphs (L57-L58).
Sources
2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.
- ELLE, first-person account as told to Daniella Scott(opens in new tab)
s1 · elle.com · First person account · English · Inspected · 6 February 2020 · Shares an underlying account with another listed source · Primary
- journalistic_interview(opens in new tab)
s2 · dazeddigital.com · Journalistic interview · English · Inspected · Shares an underlying account with another listed source
How the sources were read, and where the events happened
English as-told-to account read directly after the web reader failed. Technical background and the article’s inconsistent chronology are not adopted as facts about her particular case. Applies to s1.
English interview read directly. Same affected person as the later ELLE account. Applies to s2.
Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Australia. Court countries: Unknown.
ELLE’s first-person account locates the speaker in Australia. The location of the video’s creation or her initial discovery is not established.
Reviewed for publication 2026-09-25: Concrete adverse experience with a core person relation. Claims remain attributed to their sources. Technical and causal limits are recorded.
People reported harmed in this case
1 person
0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed
One advocate. Other people mentioned in the sources are separate accounts.
Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.
Cite this case
Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2026). Australian advocate reports distress from nonconsensual deepfake videos. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2018-australia-advocate-deepfake-video-abuse
BibTeX
@misc{2018_australia_advocate_deepfake_video_abuse,
title = {Australian advocate reports distress from nonconsensual deepfake videos},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {AI incidents},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2018-australia-advocate-deepfake-video-abuse}
} Related cases
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