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A prominent Spanish women\u2019s rights advocate, targeted by AI-generated nude images, urges authorities to enforce tougher online rules, linking accounts to real identities amid rising digital abuse and European regulatory shifts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A Spanish women\u2019s rights campaigner who became the target of AI-manufactured nude images has urged tougher online rules, pressing authorities to end the near-anonymity she says enables repeated digital assaults. According to recent reporting, she wants platforms required to link accounts to identifiable individuals so perpetrators cannot act with impunity. [2]<\/a><\/sup>,[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Madrid is preparing a suite of measures that go beyond fines and takedown orders, including a proposed ban on under-16s using social media and the prospect of criminal liability for executives who fail to remove illegal or hateful material. The moves form part of a wider European turn towards stricter controls on large U.S. tech firms. [5]<\/a><\/sup>,[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The activist, who combines legal training with a high public profile, said the scale of online abuse had forced governments to act only after the problem became impossible to ignore. \u201cSocial media isn\u2019t new \u2013 and the violence is brutal, systematic, 24\/7,\u201d she told Reuters, and she recounted an encounter with law enforcement that left her frustrated after being told her case did not amount to a crime. \u201cWhat hit me hardest wasn\u2019t the deepfake, it was going to the police and being told it wasn\u2019t even a crime.\u201d Similar episodes, including investigations into AI-driven images of minors and prosecutions of young offenders, have exposed gaps in the law and enforcement. [3]<\/a><\/sup>,[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n She rejected a blanket age-based cut-off for social media as insufficient, describing proposals to bar children as \u201cpaternalistic\u201d and arguing protections must extend to all users. Campaign groups and surveys have documented widespread harm: one study found large numbers of young people in Spain have been subject to AI-generated sexual imagery without consent. [4]<\/a><\/sup>,[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n While defending the right to use pseudonyms online, she said platforms should be required to hold verifiable identity information behind profiles: \u201cCall yourself \u2018PeppaPig88\u2019 if you want \u2013 fine. But there has to be a real identity behind that account,\u201d she said. As an alternative to small fines, she proposed stronger market sanctions against platforms that repeatedly fail to curb abuse, up to exclusion from major markets. Recent criminal probes into major social networks over alleged failures to prevent sexualised deepfakes of children have added urgency to such proposals. [7]<\/a><\/sup>,[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Advocates and policymakers point to a string of domestic cases that illustrate how AI tools have expanded avenues for harassment, from sharing manipulated images of teenagers to orchestrated campaigns of hate. Save the Children and other organisations have called for clearer statutes, compulsory digital education and stronger enforcement to protect minors and adults alike. [4]<\/a><\/sup>,[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n The campaigner insists regulation and free speech can coexist, saying public safety requires accountability online in the same way it does offline: \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to think that a man on the street could shout that they\u2019ll rape you and nothing happens, but that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing online,\u201d she said. Policymakers now face the task of balancing civil liberties with new forms of harm driven by AI-enabled tools and platforms\u2019 global reach. [6]<\/a><\/sup>,[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Inspired by headline at:<\/strong> [1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\nSource Reference Map<\/h3>\n