Meet the 15-year-old deepfake victim pushing Congress into action

In October, Francesca Mani was one of reportedly more than 30 girls at Westfield High School in New Jersey who were victims of deepfake pornography. Boys at the school had taken photos of Francesca and her classmates and manipulated them with artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images of them without their consent. The practice is actually stunningly commonplace, but we rarely hear such stories--at least in part because many victims of sexual harassment very understandably don't want to talk publicly about incidents that are so private. But within just a day of learning about the violation, which she calls "shocking," 15-year-old Francesca started speaking out and calling on lawmakers to do something about the broader problem. Her efforts are already starting to pay off with new momentum behind proposals for state and federal legislation, which I wrote about in a story published this morning.