A CCTV report from China exposes the full chain of this criminal AI operation, revealing a harsh truth: technology is being twisted into a ruthless tool for digital bullying.
1. The Source: Harvesting Faces from Social Media
The main raw material is ordinary people’s faces, especially women’s. Scammers gather photos by:
Hacking personal accounts: Breaking into Facebook and Instagram to steal private photo collections.
Scraping public data: Collecting tons of selfies, ID photos, and casual pictures posted openly online.
Faking images: Using AI to remix existing photos into new face data for malicious use.
2. The Middle: Deepfake Factories and the “Hua Xin Zhen” Short Film Incident
Here, tech experts use open-source code or modified deepfake tools to “steal faces”.
Recently, a Chinese streaming platform urgently pulled the short film “Hua Xin Zhen” after accusations that the production used AI to “borrow” a netizen’s face without permission, placing it on the villain character. This scandal shows how face theft has infiltrated mainstream film production, turning AI into a dangerous digital bullying weapon.
3. The End: Black Markets and Sophisticated Distribution
Once created, these products are sold through:
Disguised groups: Hiding under communities like “AI Art Exchange” or “AI Painting”.
Encrypted messaging apps: Using international encrypted apps to trade and avoid law enforcement.
Diverse business models: From custom orders and wholesale to membership fees for exclusive content access.
Even worse, social media algorithms unintentionally help by pushing this content to the right audiences, creating a vicious cycle that’s hard to break.
