Brandon ‘Atrioc’ Ewing returns to streaming after deepfake porn scandal

Atrioc is now back on Twitch. His real name is Brandon Ewing. He had taken a roughly month-and-a-half break from the streaming platform after inadvertently sharing his Chrome browser tabs on a livestream, and revealing that he visited a website that sold explicit, non-consensual deepfakes — specifically ones in which other streamers’ likenesses were edited onto pornstars’ bodies.

Screenshots of the website were circulated widely by those who had been viewing Ewing’s livestream. And the streamers whose likenesses appeared on the deepfake website, including QTCinderella, Maya Higa, Sweet Anita, and Pokimane — some of whom are friends with Ewing — had to deal with the fallout. The harassation of women affected by the incident continued for several weeks. Explicit images were circulated on the internet showing their likenesses.

This past Tuesday, Ewing went on a stream to give an update on the “actions” he has been taking in the aftermath of his deepfake scandal. Ewing was speaking when the stream suffered significant technical interruptions. He said he was working with “reporters, technologists, researchers, women affected, Twitch themselves — I’m trying to work with everyone I can.”

Ewing also apologised for the initial video of his tearful apology, which he posted Jan. 30 and has since been deleted from his account. In that initial apology video, he claimed that he had navigated to the website as a result of clicking on a PornHub ad out of “morbid curiosity.” On Jan. 31, Ewing had also shared a statement on Twitter via TwitLonger in which he apologized to Maya and Pokimane, and said he was working with QTCinderella and law firm Morrison Rothman to take down the deepfake website. Vice reported that the website was removed from deepfakes in January.

Ewing stated that he had wired $60,000 towards Morrison Rothman during the stream. This was the same law firm QTCinderella suggested to the women who were affected by the deepfake scam. Ryan Morrison was the founding partner at the law firm and sent Polygon the following email.

I can’t confirm who utilized it or how much (attorney/client privilege), but I can for sure confirm Atrioc sent a 60k retainer to be used exclusively for women affected by deep fakes and similar issues, and that goes a *long* way with our rates for such services. All retainers are retained and paid out only when used. Any remaining funds at the end of the case will be returned to the client. It is likely that the retainer will continue to be used as an ongoing matter and provide protections for all parties.

Ewing discovered that OnlyFans creators have made significant progress in fighting against deepfake porn during his deepfake research. He found that a company called Ceartas — which uses artificial intelligence to flag appearances of creator likenesses, and file DMCA reports — was one of OnlyFans’ safety partners, as noted in the site’s 2023 Transparency Report.

A representative from Ceartas told Polygon via email that the company was built to “specifically combat deepfake pornography, revenge porn, and image-based sexual abuse.” They confirmed Ewing had worked with them, saying, “Brandon reached out to us a few weeks ago for some assistance after he was unhappy with the work carried out by a law firm. The creators mentioned by Ewing in his stream requested a trial. We offered to help. This has now gone from trial to service.”

The representative also responded to some of Ewing’s claims regarding the company’s AI model:

Brandon made the comment about not enough creators in our AI model. I thought he was referring to Twitch streamers. There are just over 500 customers in multiple verticals, including OnlyFans and YouTube. but not as many Twitch-type creators facing deepfake issues (considering many of them don’t do any NSFW content). We have tons of data to use with our AI tools – more information on edge cases would be welcome.

Ewing claimed that he was assisted by an unorthodox person. Maya Higa, one the victims of deepfake, responded to Ewing’s request for help and apologised. Ewing claimed that the team used Ceartas and were able to remove 512 items on Google in just 12 hours (Ewing didn’t specify which item was removed). Ewing compared the number of takedowns Morrison Rothman had reportedly made in February to this.

Ewing claimed that QTCinderella had used Ceartas in order to delist several deepfakes after the successful results. He also said that Amouranth reached out to him and asked him to help her “get stuff taken down.”

Polygon reached out for comments to QTCinderella’s, Pokimane and Amouranth representatives. When we have a response, we will update the story.

Deepfake images can be created and removed from the internet in a very difficult way. As the technology that can be used to create them only grows more sophisticated — with generative AI, in particular, making it easier than ever — the potential for misuse and harassment continues to grow as well. And while laws that specifically target deepfake porn exist in California and in Virginia, such protections don’t exist at a federal level, and are notoriously hard to enforce.

Since Atrioc’s livestream in January, the barrage of harassment has been endless for the women targeted by these deepfakes. QTCinderella responded to the situation in January. “Fuck the fucking internet. Fuck the constant exploitation and objectification of women — it’s exhausting,” she said. “This is what it looks like. This is what the pain looks like.” In the months following, she still organized the Streamer Awards and told Polygon in a recent interview: “I think any woman in the industry can attest that it is just an upward battle.”

Ewing’s apology video only appeared to amplify the situation; in January, Sweet Anita tweetedHis apology video showed her how she discovered explicit deepfakes about him were posted on a site. Kotaku wrote extensively in February about the impact of her fallout. “They want to see you as a whore, no matter what you do. You are a whore, and they hate you. It doesn’t matter whether you participate, they’ll make you participate in it,” Sweet Anita told Kotaku.

In the months following the incident, a number of ads for apps that allow users to create deepfakes — including this one, featuring person who has been edited to bear resemblance to Emma Watson — also began spreading across Facebook.

Twitch was unable to provide a response within a period of more than a month. Twitch updated its policy regarding non-consensual, exploitative images on March 7. The company updated the language in its Adult Sexual Violence and Exploitation policy to “make it more clear that intentionally promoting, creating, or sharing synthetic NCEI can result in an indefinite suspension.” The Adult Nudity policy was also updated to include NCEI. According to the U.K., they were consulted. Revenge Porn Helpline, and Danielle Keats Citron (vice president of Cyber Civil Rights Initiative).