University Deepfake: Prank or Unlawful Act?

Abstract

[Abstract] Lucía Fernández López teaches at a public university. While preparing the 2024-2025 graduation ceremony, the fourth-year students of the school where Lucía taught asked the professors for several photographs -in an informal pose- to make an album for both teachers and students. Lucía agreed. On graduation day, the students made the album for the teachers, but they also used the photographs to make a funny album, in which they awarded prizes to the teachers; e.g.: ‘the funniest’, ‘the most boring’, ‘the most absent-minded’, etc. In particular, the montage featuring Lucía showed the teacher sitting on a pile of books and holding a wooden ruler in an authoritative pose. The phrase accompanying the montage read: ‘To the one who fails the most’. Lucía did not take kindly to this and reproached the students for not informing her of their genuine intention in requesting the photograph. A few days after graduation, a photo at Lucía’s faculty was circulated, showing her face, perfectly identifiable, superimposed on a completely naked female body. The image of her face corresponded to the photograph that Lucía had given to her students a few days earlier. The montage was watermarked with the words: ‘DeepLab’. In addition, the caption of the photo included the following sentence: ‘She’s a woman to be reckoned with’. In view of the stir caused, Lucía turned to the complaints channel to initiate the corresponding proceedings before the competent university body in defence of the rights she considered have been violated by the acts committed by the fourth-year students.