A former TV news meteorologist shared how she was 'destroyed' and 'traumatized' as documented images and semi-naked Deepfake videos of her spread throughout the internet last year.
Bree Smith, 43, shared her experience at Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday, while testifying to support the Preventing Deep Fake Images Act, reports the Tennessean.
The bill would make it a crime in the state 'to announce or ask the disclosure of an intimate digital display to announce or ask the disclosure of an intimate digital display with the intention of harassing, annoying, annoying, alerting, alerting, alerting or considerably.'
It would also allow people to sue and repair financial damage from those who post photos or videos of 'intimate digital display … without the permission of the individual' or those who 'ignore recklessly or agreed to the individual with such disclosure'.
For Smith, the former main meteorologist at WTVF, the disturbing images began to pop up on social media in the fall, when 'fake Facebook accounts … used fake photos that showed my face on someone else's seminude body,' she told Tennessee House Criminal Justice subcommission.
“They also make fake videos who used my face and my name to convince people that it was really,” she claimed.
“Discovering these cheaper accounts and seeing the humiliating fake images and videos was devastating to me.”
Bree Smith, 43, shared how she 'destroyed' and 'traumatized' was left as documented images and semi-naked deep fake videos of her spread throughout the internet last year
The former meteorologist for WTVF shared her story as she testified to support the Preventing Deep Fake Images Act at Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday
She then claimed those who had made the fake images and they used videos to convince her fans to send them money.
In one case she said that a viewer received a few fake videos in which it seemed that Smith promised many sexual acts and asked the viewer to send them money to book a stay of two nights at the Conrad Hotel. '
By doing this, those users of those social media has violated me and they have hunted Tennesseans, “said Smith.
When she then contacted WTVF: “I was told that nothing could be done – it was not illegal and I had no story.”
“I felt humiliated and scared,” said Smith. “I didn't know what to do or how to fight with it and I didn't know how I could protect the viewers and the people who trusted me online because I was subject to this kind of extortion.”
WTVF stations manager Richard Eller has since told the Tennesseaneans that the station 'warmly' shares its frustrations when he explained how the staff tried to stop the trailers.
“We did everything we can to help her, looking for expert advice to ensure that we did everything,” he said.
'We have exhausted our options with the social media platforms to try to take action, to get the situation at Metro Police and a study started through our company security team. Nothing worked. '
Smith claimed that those who had made the fake images and had used videos to convince her fans to send them money
The whole situation was ultimately 'very humiliating' for Smith, who told her that it caused a 'very dark depression.
“My face, my reputation and my identity distorted in something so mean and vulnerable traumatized me and my family,” Smith told the legislators on Wednesday.
“This destroyed my life's work,” she added and said she became a meteorologist, “because I believed I could help people.
“I believed that when tough again took place, I could save people's lives,” Smith explained.
'So to have my face, my reputation, the confidence that this community has put in me, which is now being armed, to try to protect the people I have spent my career? I mean, the stable essentially, the stable that I have worked so hard to create and brought me to an impossible place where I was now the threat to the people I spent my career. '
It is unclear whether the scandal led to Smith's departure from the newsstation in January, of which WTVF said her contract ended and she and station managers did not agree on new conditions.
It is unclear whether the scandal led to Smith's departure from the newsstation in January, of which WTVF said
After Smith's powerful testimony on Wednesday, the subcommittee of Tennessee House Criminal Justice voted seven to zero to promote the bill – that was sponsored by Rep. Jason Powell, a Democrat from Nashville.
She called the movement of the subcommittee 'overwhelming', although she noticed 'there is still a lot of work to do.
“But I am a boy to see progress, because I think this is necessary as a protection for everyone in Tennessee.”
