A UPenn student started a YouTube channel. In weeks, her face was stolen on China's social media.

Mon, 03/25/2024 - 19:42

A medium close-up photograph of Olga Loiek. — Olga Loiek, 20, started a YouTube channel in November that was later targeted by unknown parties creating deepfakes of her.
Olga Loiek

Olga Loiek, a college student with a YouTube channel, says she's being used for deepfakes in China.
She's not the only one. Multiple caucasian women feature in pro-Russia deepfakes on China's internet.
Experts say it's far easier for deepfakes of Western women to go unnoticed on China's isolated web.

Olga Loiek was barely awake one mid-winter morning when she read a cryptic Instagram message.

"Do you speak any Mandarin?" it read in English.

Loiek had received similar messages in weeks prior from self-professed fans of her small YouTube channel, where she uploads self-empowerment videos to just over 15,000 subscribers.

Confusingly, several of those comments also lauded her command of the Chinese language.