Euphoria” and “Saltburn” actor Jacob Elordi is the latest celebrity to be targeted with nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes. Posts on X, formerly Twitter, containing the deepfake video of Elordi were viewed more than 3 million times starting late Monday, according to a search by NBC News.
The deepfakes of Elordi combine his face with a pornographic video taken from a male OnlyFans creator. The body in the deepfake doesn’t match Elordi, who has a distinctive birthmark on his chest. NBC News identified the deepfake in more than 16 posts on X. One of the posts has over 1.7 million views.
The OnlyFans creator who is featured in the original video has spoken out against the Elordi deepfake on his own X account, saying he was 17 when the video was taken. In posts, he wrote “that’s literally my video” and “deep fake is getting creepy.” He also replied to several of the posts containing the deepfake and asked for them to be deleted. NBC News confirmed that he is currently 19 and lives in Brazil.
Out of the 16 posts viewed by NBC, one had a content label that said “Visibility limited: this Post may violate X’s rules against Abuse.” That post could not be linked to or shared, but it still had 23,000 views.
In the past year, a number of high-profile women including Taylor Swift, Megan Thee Stallion, and numerous TikTok stars have been depicted in similar content on the platform. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Deepfakes generally refer to deceptive digital media that is either generated or altered using artificial intelligence or technology that can produce a similar result. Nonconsensual sexually explicit videos that “swap” a person’s face into a pornographic video are one of the most prevalent forms of deepfakes, and while recent federal and state legislation in the U.S. aims to combat them, the amount of the material online has ballooned.
The emergence of easy-to-use deepfake apps, which have been advertised on social media platforms for their ability to create nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes, as well as political deepfakes containing election disinformation, have raised concerns that the technology could be used to interfere with the 2024 elections.
While nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes overwhelmingly feature the faces of prominent women, as well as teenage girls, male celebrities like Elordi have also been depicted in such material. Representatives for Elordi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In some of the posts containing the deepfake of Elordi, the material was presented as a “leak,” online shorthand for real material published without the individual’s consent, or otherwise was claimed to be the real Elordi. Other posts identified the material as a deepfake.
Since April 2023, X has had a policy against sharing “synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.” It also disallows content that “sexualizes an individual without their consent.” In past statements to NBC News, X has removed deepfakes and said it proactively does so, although it has been unable to prevent the spread in cases like the Elordi deepfake.
Adult content creators told NBC News in June that it has been increasingly harder for them to thrive on X while pornographic scams proliferate on the platform.
