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A Kiwi sports presenter who previously spoke out about being targeted with explicit deepfake content by internet trolls has taken to social media to say the online abuse has worsened.

Tiffany Salmond, a New Zealand broadcaster, reported from the sidelines of NRL matches for Radio New Zealand and Australia’s Fox Sports.

Salmond hit the headlines in May this year when she complained about being the target of explicit deepfake content, made using artificial intelligence.

Following that, she says she was accused online of fabricating the issue for her own publicity.

“Over the past few months, I’ve seen a continued narrative online accusing me of faking the story for attention. Claiming the deepfakes were never real, and that I made the whole thing up.

“I stopped talking about this months ago because I’d already said what I needed to. But that doesn’t mean it stopped,” said Salmond.

Posting to social media, Salmond shared some of the explicit AI images that had been created, alongside her original photos.

The original photo published by Tiffany Salmond on her social media channels. Photo / Instagram

A deepfake image created from Tiffany Salmond's original photo. This image was shared by Salmond on her Instagram account to educate people on how harmful deepfakes can be.

“After seeing people suggest I made this whole thing up - while literally watching new deepfakes of me still being created, I realised something.

“Most people don’t actually understand what a deepfake is, or how common they’ve become. Especially when it comes to explicit ones made of real people,” said Salmond.

“So, it left me thinking, how can we educate boys, protect girls, and prepare parents, if no one actually knows that they’re up against?”

“You can’t solve a problem you don’t even see. So, I’m going to share a few censored versions of the deepfakes that were created using my photos.”

In an earlier social media post, Salmond suggested a motive for the deepfakes.

“You don’t make deepfakes of women you overlook. You make them of women you can’t control”.

Shaun Johnson of the Warriors is interviewed by Tiffany Salmond from Fox Sports in 2023. Photo / Andrew Cornaga - Photosport

Speaking to the Herald in May, Salmond said “these videos are created because the woman is seen as someone who owns her body, exudes confidence, and doesn’t shrink herself”.

Among the deepfake content that has surfaced since she spoke out earlier this year was a doctored version of a photo that she’d posted with a newspaper article about her condemning deepfakes.

“The moment I truly knew I was right, that this was always about power, was when they deepfaked that photo.

“It was retaliation. There was nothing sexual about that photo. But it was symbolic, and the only power move they had left,” said Salmond.

An original photo that Salmond says was used to create an explicit deepfake image. Photo / Instagram

While it’s unclear where the deepfake imagery originated from, New Zealand could soon be in a position to prosecute deepfake creators.

Act MP Laura McClure’s Bill to criminalise sexually explicit “deepfake” images will be read in parliament.

If passed, the Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill will amend existing laws to expand the definition of an “intimate visual recording”.

It will widen what a “recording” is to include images or videos that are created, synthesised or altered to depict a person’s likeness in intimate contexts without their consent.