All articles tagged with #consent
At Cannes, Cate Blanchett argued the #MeToo movement in Hollywood was “killed very quickly,” saying the exposure of systemic abuse spans industries and that power imbalances on film sets persist. She urged ongoing acknowledgment of these issues, highlighted concerns about consent in AI, and criticized the homogeneous culture on sets, while also noting film festivals should not be the sole venues for solving global conflicts.
Hayden Panettiere recounts in her forthcoming memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning that at 18 she was pressured to get into bed with a naked, famous male actor; she escaped by fleeing to a boat and describes the broader predatory dynamics she faced in Hollywood, a topic she ties to her broader life disclosures ahead of the memoir’s May 19 release.
A British woman says a man wearing smart glasses filmed her without consent and later demanded payment to remove the footage, highlighting how wearable cameras can be used for extortion and how influencer-driven content can invade privacy; police have limited leads and platforms have removed the video, underscoring privacy risks in wearable tech and social media dynamics.
A London woman says she was covertly filmed by a man wearing smart glasses as she walked into a shopping centre; the clip was posted online and the man demanded payment to remove it, prompting claims of humiliation and exploitation. The BBC found similar accounts across multiple platforms, with TikTok banning the uploader and Meta removing a reposted video. Police opened an investigation but made little progress due to limited information, and experts say stronger platform rules and enforcement are needed to curb monetized, non-consensual content online.
Cybernews reports that Google Chrome allegedly writes a 4GB on-device AI model (Gemini Nano) to users’ disks without consent, triggered by default AI features. The binary, named weights.bin and stored under OptGuideOnDeviceModel, appears without any consent prompt and reportedly re-downloads if deleted, raising privacy, consent, and environmental impact concerns and prompting calls for an explicit opt-in.
The European Parliament approved a resolution calling for an EU-wide definition of rape based on the absence of freely given, informed consent, stating that silence or lack of resistance cannot be taken as consent and that past relationships or marriage do not imply consent. The European Commission is urged to draft legislation, which would then need approval from member states. The move aligns with the Istanbul Convention and follows a split among member states, with 17 already using consent-based definitions and others still relying on force-based criteria. The vote was 447 in favour, 160 against, and 43 abstentions, and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights notes about 5% of EU women have experienced rape since age 15.
Russell Brand said on The Megyn Kelly Show that he had exploitative but consensual sex with a 16-year-old when he was 30, a claim raised as he faces rape and sexual assault charges dating from 1999–2009, with his trial now scheduled for October; he argues the relationships reflected a power imbalance and his past selfish behavior.
The Register catalogs a massive roster of ad-tech vendors and their cookie usage, showing a wide patchwork of data collection and storage practices—from IP addresses, device IDs, and precise locations to user profiles and authentication-derived identifiers—often tied to long cookie lifespans (sometimes years) and various legal bases (consent or legitimate interest). A notable number rely on additional storage methods, and a few vendors claim not to use cookies, underscoring the sprawling, opaque ecosystem behind online tracking.
Baltimore filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging Grok generates nonconsensual sexual deepfakes on X and violates consumer-protection and deceptive-practices laws. The city says Grok’s features like“spicy mode” enable sexualized edits of real people (including minors), that Musk promoted Grok’s editing capabilities, and it seeks penalties plus court-ordered platform reforms. The action follows other related lawsuits and inquiries about Grok’s behavior.
Maggie Gyllenhaal says Warner Bros. pushed to tone down some sexually violent scenes in The Bride!, resulting in a slightly trimmed version after mall test screenings. She notes consent as a major issue for the Bride of Frankenstein-inspired film, argues the violence should be hard to watch, and says the movie is now in theaters with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale.
Yahoo describes how cookies and other technologies collect device information, measure usage, and enable personalized advertising, with options to accept all, reject all, or customize privacy settings via the Privacy Dashboard.
Crystal Hefner, Hugh Hefner’s widow, has filed complaints with California and Illinois attorneys general over the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation’s handling of thousands of private documents, notably scrapbooks containing intimate images. She argues the materials may include images of underage girls and were obtained without consent, warning that digitization and data breaches could irreparably harm the women involved. Allred calls for an AG investigation, while the foundation defends its civil-rights mission amid ongoing internal disputes that reportedly led to her removal as president.
American writer and influencer Ashley St. Clair filed a New York lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, alleging its Grok chatbot generated sexually explicit deepfakes of her—some from when she was a minor—at users’ prompting and that her X account was demoted and later terminated after she complained; she seeks a temporary restraining order to stop nonconsensual intimate images, while xAI countersued, saying she agreed to its terms of service; the case arrives amid global backlash, platform restrictions on sexualized AI imagery, and regulatory scrutiny into Grok’s handling of nonconsensual material.
The UK government plans to criminalize the distribution of intimate images without consent in response to a public outcry, aiming to strengthen protections against non-consensual imagery and privacy violations.
AI-generated porn, including deepfakes and 'nudify' apps, is rapidly advancing and becoming more accessible, raising serious concerns about consent, privacy, and safety, with implications for relationships, work, and legal frameworks worldwide.