Human rights activist Laura Harth played a key role in revealing an illegal Chinese police presence in New York, which led to an onslaught of bizarre online slurs suggesting an affair with Tim Walz, a former Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate. This began four years ago and recently escalated with AI-enabled deepfake porn images of her being circulated.
Activist Su Yutong has faced similar harassment for 15 years, starting with false accusations and photoshopped nudes. Today, fake pornographic images simulating her likeness flood her online presence.
Deepfakes Amplify Ongoing Harassment
Women opposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often become targets of organized online harassment, driven by state-linked entities in China. Companies like Meta and OpenAI note these large-scale campaigns.
Some victims counterattack by publicizing their ordeal. Recently, Harth shared her own case publicly through her employer, Safeguard Defenders. She emphasized that the shame belongs to the perpetrators and aims to break the taboo surrounding these demeaning images. Su Yutong permitted Newsweek to show altered images that suggest her likeness.
A Global Network of Harassment
Newsweek interviewed four politically active women from Canada, the UK, Germany, and Italy. All described similar experiences of digital harassment, surging when sensitive events occur in China. They are pushing for local authorities to intervene, but the harassment often resurfaces even when specific accounts are shut down. Technology companies have linked these campaigns to individuals associated with Chinese law enforcement.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not comment when contacted for a response.
Kompromat and Misogyny
A classic example of ‘sex kompromat,’ designed to entrap and discredit, says an intelligence expert.
Nathalie Vogel of the Institute of World Politics explains that repressive regimes historically used methods like body doubles for blackmail. AI has now modernized these tactics. Zang Xihong, a critic of the CCP, faced harassment during a democracy event when explicit fake images reached the attendees.
Zang noted that such tactics rarely target men, as they tend not to affect them similarly. Legal action is a recourse, though it struggles to keep pace with technological advances. Countries like the U.S. and Italy have advanced legislation to prosecute harmful deepfakes.
Zang says the goal of harassment is to stifle dissent among female critics of the Chinese government. Su Yutong agrees, highlighting how damaging being branded a ‘loose woman’ can be within Chinese culture. Chinese authorities target her physically as well, with miscreants showing up at her address and harassing her China-based family.
Tackling the Narrative
Not every victim opts to publicize their experience. Carmen Lau, an exiled democracy activist in London, remains undecided about going public with fake images used to defame her. Having faced harassment since 2019, she continues to deal with the emotional impact.
Harth acknowledges the challenge, balancing public exposure against personal safety. As someone not directly tied to China, she feels a unique privilege in her ability to openly share her experience, seeing it as a responsibility to be a voice for those less free to do so.