Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry on the impact of deepfakes and “a decade of receiving rape or death threats on the internet”

nme.com:

Lauren Mayberry has opened up about the impact of deepfakes, after “receiving rape or death threats on the internet” for 10 years.The singer, songwriter and Chvrches frontwoman spoke candidly about her experience of online abuse as one of the artists taking part in a new initiative called Change The Tune – an on-air, digital and social media initiative by BBC Radio 6 Music to raise awareness for the issue.In the discussion – which you can watch here – she recalled how she has faced harassment online for a decade now and warned that the “cyber misogyny” experienced by women and girls every day is both dangerous and isolating.Recalling how it began for her, Mayberry recalled how she was overly sexualised by “a lot of men” online from the very start of her career. “It’s all very sexual and sexualised all the time,” she said. “And I look at that and I’m like, I was a 23-year-old girl, trying to do my job, just to write some silly songs… I didn’t know that that was going to be such a big part of it.”In a new interview with BBC News, she also went on to recall how the abuse increased as Chvrches’ success did, and how she received threats of violence online after expressing disappointment in Marshmello’s decision to work with Chris Brown and Tyga.

The comments came in light of Brown previously admitting to assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna, and Tyga being sued for sexual assault.According to Mayberry, one person online threatened to “bash her skull in” if she continued to make comments about Brown, leading to her hiring private security at her home.Since then, she has gone on to appear in “deepfake” pornography – a digitally-created explicit image or video where artificial intelligence is used to impose someone’s face onto.