March 22, 2025 • 8 mins
A new six-part podcast aims to explore the rise of deepfake pornography and the ongoing efforts to stop it.
Levittown shares the stories of dozens of young women who discovered photos of themselves were stolen, altered by AI and posted on porn sites without their knowledge.
Kiwi reporter Olivia Carville is an investigative journalist for Bloomberg News - and says the technology has evolved faster than legislation can keep up.
"In the past few years, with the rise of generative AI - we have just seen an explosion in this kind of content. It's now cheaper and easier to make deepfakes of pretty much anything and it's very hard to tell what is real."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talksb kee.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We Born Bloomberg journalist Olivia Carvill has dedicated her career
to unearthing the dark side of tech and the Internet.
We spoke to Olivia last year about her investigation into
sex tals Now. Olivia's latest work focus is on the
rise of deep fake pornography and the battle to stop it.
She's turned her work into a six part podcast alongside
(00:33):
cybercrime colleague Maggie Murphy, and despite it being set in
suburban New York, this podcast has a surprising and unique
kee We twist to it. The podcast is called Leavitttown.
To tell us More, Olivia Carvill is with me.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Now, good morning, good morning, Thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, try and set this story up for me. We're
in Leavittown, a suburban Long Island, New York, and a
bunch of girls I think all from the same high
school are targeted.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So the story is really set in a very unlikely place,
which is Leavittown, New York. This is actually one of
the first suburbs ever built in America. It was designed
for veterans returning from World War Two, and I traveled
out to live at Town a lot during the reporting
of this podcast, and just to kind of set the
scene for listeners. It's white picket sensors, American flags on
(01:25):
almost every porch, cookie cutter homes that all look the same,
with manicured lawns out front. It's an incredibly safe community.
It's a place where families actually leave the concrete jungle
of New York City to raise their children and send
them to schools in a suburban area that they just
(01:45):
feel will protect them in a better way, where they'll
be safer than what they are in the big city.
So one of the surprising things for us was the
scene of where this kind of horror story unfolded. And
dozens of young women from a high school and live
itt Town found themselves targeted by a pornographic website in
(02:07):
late twenty twenty. And what was particularly horrifying for them
is it was photos that they had posted to social
media accounts, you know, like everybody does. Pictures that uploaded
to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat had been copied, pasted, and altered
to make them appear naked and then shared on this
(02:28):
very graphic, violent pornographic website.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The deep fakes, And I think we've all heard about
deep fakes, but gosh, the technology is changing an awful
lot around this, isn't it, Olivia.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I mean, the technology is just moving faster than anyone
can keep up. Margie Murphy the co reporter that worked
on this podcast with me, she covers cybercrime for Bloomberg,
and you know, her and I try and keep up
with what's happening in this space, but it's very difficult
to do.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
So you've got.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital flowing into
these image generating software companies. Billions and billions of deep
fakes are being uploaded to the Internet, the vast majority
of which are non consensual pornographic images. I think the
interesting thing about deep sakes, when you think about the
(03:17):
history of this kind of form of content, is it's
really images, video, audio, any kind of content that's been
digitally altered using artificial intelligence so it looks convincingly real.
And I think a number of people would recall the
pope wearing the puffer jacket.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Do you remember that phone that came out a few
years ago?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, so deep fakes at the time were quite surprising
because you know, it was a way of viewing images
that earlier there was always a towell with a deep fake,
like maybe there were six fingers on a hand, or
maybe there was some kind of clue that indicated the
(04:01):
image wasn't real.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
It was pixelated in some way, or.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
The mouth wasn't looking at the same time as the words,
so you knew that it wasn't real.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
But in the past few years, with the rise.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of generative AI, we have just seen an explosion in
this kind of content.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It's now cheaper and.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Easier to make deep fakes of pretty much anything, and.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
It is very hard to tell what is real and
what is fake.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
It's difficult to trust our own eyes now, Olivia.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What was really horrific about this website is not only
did it have these deep fake nude images of these
young teenagers, but also it encouraged people to comment on
what they would like to do to them. And I
don't want to go into that because it is so horrific.
But you've got this group of young women, the images
have been scraped from social media. They've got a little
(04:51):
bit of an idea about who was doing it, but
no one could do anything about that. The police couldn't
do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, I mean the surprising. Another one of the surprising
things about this story is the fact that there were
no laws at the time to protect the vict in
this case. So when they went to the police and
they showed them the photographs, and it's so clear that
what happened to these young women was a crime. I mean,
we're talking violent graphic posts online, things that you know,
(05:21):
we can't share on radio. And police knew that this
wasn't okay and that they had to protect these young women,
but there was no law that they could charge the individual.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Wiz.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
The poster was anonymous, and when we think about cyber
harassment cases, it's really hard to track down who's posting
this content because individuals can hide behind VPNs virtual private networks.
They can also move throughout the Internet kind of secretly
and do a lot to cover their tracks. So not
only is it hard to unmask or expose the perpetrators
(05:56):
who create and post this content, but there was no
law and there still isn't today a real federal law
that can protect young women from this kind of content
in the US. I think this is a case where
you've got countries all over the world struggling to catch
up with the technology to put legislation, laws, regulations in
(06:19):
place that can really protect victims from this. And I
think that's one of the difficulties is we have the
advancements of AI and all the incredible magical breakthroughs of
the Internet and the way in which we can use
these websites and platforms to connect with families around the
world and see what our high school friends are doing
(06:39):
years later. There also comes consequences with those breakthroughs, and
that's what we really saw in this podcast is the
dark side of that technology.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Olivia. These young women took matters into their own hands,
but there was someone else already investigating the site. Tell
me about William Wallace.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I mean, I love this part of the story because
it takes us back to New Zealand, and that is
something that I never would have imagined when I first
started investigating this with my colleague Margie Murphy. But Margie
and I were really while we were reporting out the
Levittown case and speaking to the victims and the prosecutors
and the police and trying to understand how and what
(07:20):
had unfolded and Levettown. We also wanted to try and
get a sense of who was behind this website, who
had created this site that was essentially dedicated to cyber
stalking and cyber harassment. And it turns out someone was
way ahead of us, and that's William Wallace. He's a
(07:40):
former police officer in New Zealand turned private investigator, incredibly
skilled with open source intelligence tools and tracking down cyber
harasses on the Internet. And I think this is kind
of the greatest unexpected twist in the story is that
it has this incredible New Zealand angle. As you know,
(08:00):
we were tracking and following what was happening in Levittown,
and as the prosecutors and police were trying to protect
those young women get those photos taken down, you have
this private investigator based here in New Zealand who was
really going after the website itself.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Olivia, it's been really great to catch up with you.
The podcast is fantastic. It's an incredible story. Thank you
so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Thank you so much for having me. And it would
be great if you guys took a listen and if
you want to.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Have a listen to The podcast is called Live It Town.
It's on iHeartRadio and all the other podcast platforms. Now
the Key We Twist really is something else, so it's
worth checking out.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talksb kee.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We Born Bloomberg journalist Olivia Carvill has dedicated her career
to unearthing the dark side of tech and the Internet.
We spoke to Olivia last year about her investigation into
sex tals Now. Olivia's latest work focus is on the
rise of deep fake pornography and the battle to stop it.
She's turned her work into a six part podcast alongside
(00:33):
cybercrime colleague Maggie Murphy, and despite it being set in
suburban New York, this podcast has a surprising and unique
kee We twist to it. The podcast is called Leavitttown.
To tell us More, Olivia Carvill is with me.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Now, good morning, good morning, Thank you so much for
having me.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, try and set this story up for me. We're
in Leavittown, a suburban Long Island, New York, and a
bunch of girls I think all from the same high
school are targeted.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So the story is really set in a very unlikely place,
which is Leavittown, New York. This is actually one of
the first suburbs ever built in America. It was designed
for veterans returning from World War Two, and I traveled
out to live at Town a lot during the reporting
of this podcast, and just to kind of set the
scene for listeners. It's white picket sensors, American flags on
(01:25):
almost every porch, cookie cutter homes that all look the same,
with manicured lawns out front. It's an incredibly safe community.
It's a place where families actually leave the concrete jungle
of New York City to raise their children and send
them to schools in a suburban area that they just
(01:45):
feel will protect them in a better way, where they'll
be safer than what they are in the big city.
So one of the surprising things for us was the
scene of where this kind of horror story unfolded. And
dozens of young women from a high school and live
itt Town found themselves targeted by a pornographic website in
(02:07):
late twenty twenty. And what was particularly horrifying for them
is it was photos that they had posted to social
media accounts, you know, like everybody does. Pictures that uploaded
to Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat had been copied, pasted, and altered
to make them appear naked and then shared on this
(02:28):
very graphic, violent pornographic website.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
The deep fakes, And I think we've all heard about
deep fakes, but gosh, the technology is changing an awful
lot around this, isn't it, Olivia.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I mean, the technology is just moving faster than anyone
can keep up. Margie Murphy the co reporter that worked
on this podcast with me, she covers cybercrime for Bloomberg,
and you know, her and I try and keep up
with what's happening in this space, but it's very difficult
to do.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
So you've got.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Hundreds of millions of dollars of venture capital flowing into
these image generating software companies. Billions and billions of deep
fakes are being uploaded to the Internet, the vast majority
of which are non consensual pornographic images. I think the
interesting thing about deep sakes, when you think about the
(03:17):
history of this kind of form of content, is it's
really images, video, audio, any kind of content that's been
digitally altered using artificial intelligence so it looks convincingly real.
And I think a number of people would recall the
pope wearing the puffer jacket.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Do you remember that phone that came out a few
years ago?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, so deep fakes at the time were quite surprising
because you know, it was a way of viewing images
that earlier there was always a towell with a deep fake,
like maybe there were six fingers on a hand, or
maybe there was some kind of clue that indicated the
(04:01):
image wasn't real.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
It was pixelated in some way, or.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
The mouth wasn't looking at the same time as the words,
so you knew that it wasn't real.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
But in the past few years, with the rise.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of generative AI, we have just seen an explosion in
this kind of content.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It's now cheaper and.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Easier to make deep fakes of pretty much anything, and.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
It is very hard to tell what is real and
what is fake.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
It's difficult to trust our own eyes now, Olivia.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
What was really horrific about this website is not only
did it have these deep fake nude images of these
young teenagers, but also it encouraged people to comment on
what they would like to do to them. And I
don't want to go into that because it is so horrific.
But you've got this group of young women, the images
have been scraped from social media. They've got a little
(04:51):
bit of an idea about who was doing it, but
no one could do anything about that. The police couldn't
do anything about it.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, I mean the surprising. Another one of the surprising
things about this story is the fact that there were
no laws at the time to protect the vict in
this case. So when they went to the police and
they showed them the photographs, and it's so clear that
what happened to these young women was a crime. I mean,
we're talking violent graphic posts online, things that you know,
(05:21):
we can't share on radio. And police knew that this
wasn't okay and that they had to protect these young women,
but there was no law that they could charge the individual.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Wiz.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
The poster was anonymous, and when we think about cyber
harassment cases, it's really hard to track down who's posting
this content because individuals can hide behind VPNs virtual private networks.
They can also move throughout the Internet kind of secretly
and do a lot to cover their tracks. So not
only is it hard to unmask or expose the perpetrators
(05:56):
who create and post this content, but there was no
law and there still isn't today a real federal law
that can protect young women from this kind of content
in the US. I think this is a case where
you've got countries all over the world struggling to catch
up with the technology to put legislation, laws, regulations in
(06:19):
place that can really protect victims from this. And I
think that's one of the difficulties is we have the
advancements of AI and all the incredible magical breakthroughs of
the Internet and the way in which we can use
these websites and platforms to connect with families around the
world and see what our high school friends are doing
(06:39):
years later. There also comes consequences with those breakthroughs, and
that's what we really saw in this podcast is the
dark side of that technology.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Olivia. These young women took matters into their own hands,
but there was someone else already investigating the site. Tell
me about William Wallace.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I mean, I love this part of the story because
it takes us back to New Zealand, and that is
something that I never would have imagined when I first
started investigating this with my colleague Margie Murphy. But Margie
and I were really while we were reporting out the
Levittown case and speaking to the victims and the prosecutors
and the police and trying to understand how and what
(07:20):
had unfolded and Levettown. We also wanted to try and
get a sense of who was behind this website, who
had created this site that was essentially dedicated to cyber
stalking and cyber harassment. And it turns out someone was
way ahead of us, and that's William Wallace. He's a
(07:40):
former police officer in New Zealand turned private investigator, incredibly
skilled with open source intelligence tools and tracking down cyber
harasses on the Internet. And I think this is kind
of the greatest unexpected twist in the story is that
it has this incredible New Zealand angle. As you know,
(08:00):
we were tracking and following what was happening in Levittown,
and as the prosecutors and police were trying to protect
those young women get those photos taken down, you have
this private investigator based here in New Zealand who was
really going after the website itself.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Olivia, it's been really great to catch up with you.
The podcast is fantastic. It's an incredible story. Thank you
so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Thank you so much for having me. And it would
be great if you guys took a listen and if
you want to.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Have a listen to The podcast is called Live It Town.
It's on iHeartRadio and all the other podcast platforms. Now
the Key We Twist really is something else, so it's
worth checking out.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin. Listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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