#deepfake attacks | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariacallous · 7 months ago

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A Russian-aligned propaganda network notorious for creating deepfake whistleblower videos appears to be behind a coordinated effort to promote wild and baseless claims that Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sexually assaulted one of his former students, according to several specialists tracking the disinformation campaign.

Experts believe that the campaign is tied to a network called Storm-1516, which has been linked to, among other things, a previous effort that falsely claimed vice president Kamala Harris perpetrated a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. Storm-1516 has a long history of posting fake whistleblower videos, and often deepfake videos, to push Kremlin talking points to the West.

The propaganda unit’s work has successfully reached the highest levels of the Republican party, with vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeating at least one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amid a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

Numerous figures in MAGA world boosted the Tim Walz assault claims, including Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter who is now a member of Trump’s campaign team, and Candace Owens, the popular right-wing podcaster. The claims went viral on X last week, when an anonymous account called Black Insurrectionist posted screenshots of emails from a purported victim. Other X users quickly debunked the claims, citing formatting errors in the images that suggested the emails were fake, but days later another conspiracist posted a video on X claiming he had spoken to one of Walz's supposed victims on the phone—without providing any proof. The video racked up millions of hits.

Then, on Wednesday, a video claiming to show a former student of Walz describing abuse by the former football coach spread widely on X. According to a WIRED analysis using several deepfake detector tools, the video was created using AI. The video, shared by a prominent anonymous QAnon-promoting account, garnered over 4.3 million views before it was deleted.

The campaign to attack Walz predates the video; it traces back to John Dougan, a former Florida cop who now lives in Moscow and runs a network of pro-Kremlin websites. Dougan appeared on Zak Paine’s QAnon show RedPill78 on October 5 with an anonymous man named “Rick,” who said he was a foreign exchange student at Mankato West High School in 2004 when Walz was a teacher there. “Rick” then claimed Walz assaulted him. Dougan did not respond to a request for comment.

The claims, however, didn’t go viral until last week and the release of the deepfake video.

Darren Linvill, codirector at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, tells WIRED that he immediately recognized this tactic as part of Russia’s well-established disinformation playbook.

“There is little doubt this is Storm-1516,” says Linvill, whose team uncovered the network last fall.

Linvill says the account that first shared the AI-altered video bears all the hallmarks of previous Storm-1516 campaigns. “It is standard for them to create an X or YouTube account for initial placement of stories,” says Linvill.

The campaign orchestrated by Storm-1516 often begins with the posting of a fake story and video from a whistleblower or citizen journalist, the US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe outlined in July. Disinformation is “amplified by other seemingly unaffiliated online networks,” the US mission stated. The claims then take on a life of their own, shared and reposted by unwitting social media users who likely have no idea of where the videos originated.

The fake stories can also be picked up by other media outlets that cover viral social media stories. In the case of the Walz claims, they ended up on MSN, a news aggregation site owned by Microsoft.

In the past, Storm-1516 has relied on a network of fake news websites run by Dougan to push its narratives. On Saturday, a story that referenced the RedPill78 interview, the Black Insurrectionist posts, and the deepfake video was published on over 100 of Dougan’s websites simultaneously.

This was first discovered by Alex Liberty, a researcher who tracks the activity of Russia’s propaganda networks and who agrees with Linvill’s assertion that the deepfake video bears all the hallmarks of a Storm-1516 campaign.

“We believe that it might be a coordinated campaign in [an] attempt to bring numerous false accusations of the same nature against Tim Walz through different channels and in different formats in order to bring an image of legitimacy to the narrative,” Liberty tells WIRED.

McKenzie Sadeghi, the AI and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, agrees.

“The false narrative appears to be part of a wider campaign pushed by pro-Kremlin media and QAnon influencers ahead of the November 5, 2024, US elections aimed at portraying Walz, whose political appeal is as an everyman schoolteacher and coach, as a pedophile who had inappropriate relationships with minors,” Sadeghi wrote in an analysis of the deepfake video.

From the very beginning, the allegations against Walz were easily debunked. In his interview on the RedPill78 QAnon show, Dougan’s source claimed he was in the US thanks to the State Department–funded Future Leaders Exchange program, which allows students from countries formerly under the control of the Soviet Union the chance to study in the US for a year.

However, a spokesperson for the US State Department, told NewsGuard that it has no record of any Future Leaders Exchange student from Kazakhstan in Mankato area schools from 2000 through 2020. Mankato Area Public Schools communications director Mel Helling told NewsGuard the allegations were “outlandish.”

The baseless claims were shared by some far-right accounts in the days after the episode was published, but they didn’t really take hold until a week later, when the X account known as Black Insurrectionist posted a clip from Dougan’s RedPill78 episode. The clip was viewed over 800,000 times.

Google search trends data shows a huge spike in people searching for “Tim Walz pedophile” and “Tim Walz abuse” on October 13, the day the Black Insurrectionist account began posting their claims.

The Black Insurrectionist account is anonymous and launched a year ago; its followers include Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump adviser Roger Stone. The account’s bio reads: “I am MAGA.” It rose to prominence weeks before the Walz post, when it claimed to have been in contact with a whistleblower at ABC who said Harris had been provided with the questions ahead of her September debate with former president Donald Trump. Those claims were widely debunked by multiple major fact-checking and media organizations.

Last week, the Black Insurrectionist account shared screenshots of email correspondence the account had with an alleged victim on X. Almost immediately, the evidence was questioned when X users spotted a text cursor in one of the screenshots, suggesting that Black Insurrectionist was editing the document. Others pointed out that the date and time format shown in some of the screenshots was inconsistent with how they are displayed on real emails.

Black Insurrectionist initially defended itself before going silent. The account was deleted on Thursday.

The two dozen posts from Black Insurrectionist laying out their alleged evidence have been viewed over 33 million times, according to X’s own metrics, and have been shared on numerous other platforms, including Truth Social, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok.

Among those sharing Black Insurrectiont’s claims was Paine, who hosted Dougan on his QAnon show. “I have no reason to doubt the veracity of this story,” Paine wrote on X.

The posts have also caught the attention of the wider MAGA universe in a way that Dougan’s initial claims didn’t. Prominent right-wing figures like Owens and Posobiec both flagged the “allegations” as something worth looking into.

Owens discussed the conspiracy on her top-rated podcast, with the episode racking up over 630,000 views on YouTube since it was posted on Wednesday.

Posobiec wrote on X that there were “lots of allegations going around regarding Tim Walz sexually abusing young student(s).” While he added that he didn’t “know about any of the recent allegations being made,” he did share a link to Dougan’s claims from earlier in the month.

When Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president in July, Russian-aligned propaganda networks struggled to mount effective disinformation campaigns targeting the vice president and her team.

But as Microsoft reported in the summer, those campaigns have started to find their footing. "The shift to focusing on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates," Clint Watts, head of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, wrote in August.

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delicatebarness · 1 year ago

Note

So I was thinking earlier for the Avengers Bunch

What if…while on a mission and in the middle of the fight reader is listening to music and just starts humming which leads to singing quietly till other young avenger hears and joins and another one and so on

the young avengers just start singing cause someone is anxious or just because they’re bored and when they run into the enemy they are like what is happening

And the song would be “We Didn’t Start The Fire” Fallout boy rendition or you can chose

The Avengers Bunch | Who's Robert Downey Jr Anyway?! #004

Summary: ^^ Requested.

Warning: Violence. Mentions of real-life events from 1989 - 2023 that could be triggering.

Word Count: 567

Series Masterlist | Tips

Tags: @somnorvos |

youtube

On the outskirts of an abandoned nuclear power plant, bursts of energy and lights flashing illuminated the night sky. The recruits were in the thick of their mission, each one of them locked in their conflict. Amidst the chaos, you crouched behind a pile of rubble, trying to catch your breath and reload your guns. After a moment, you remembered you packed your AirPods…

“Why do you need them?” you remember Bucky asking you from your doorway.

Slipping them into your ears, you pressed shuffle on your playlist, and the familiar strains of “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Fall Out Boy filled your senses. As you re-entered the battle, you found yourself humming along to the beat.

Softly, the hums turned into singing, barely audible over the fights. “Captain Planet, Arab Spring, LA riots, Rodney King…”

Nearby, Kate crouched with her bow at the ready, glancing over at you. “Are you singing?”

You gave her a sheepish grin, still humming. “It’s to help me focus.”

Nodding, Kate smiled at you before she took a deep breath and joined on the next line. “Deepfakes, earthquakes, Iceland volcano…”

Spider-Man swung in from above you, delivering a kick to a robotic enemy. He landed next to you, eyebrows raised beneath his mask. “Cool! Karaoke time!” Without hesitation, he joined in, surprisingly in tune. “Oklahoma City bomb…”

Suddenly, an amplified voice added a deep resonance as a shadow loomed over you. “I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot, I am Groot…” Groot has caught on to what was happening.

Soon enough, the four of you were all belting out the song, your voices melding together in a harmonious chorus. Your enemies, a group of heavily armed mercenaries even paused in their attacks. Staring in confusion at you all.

“What the hell?” one of them muttered, lowering their weapon slightly.

Even the most seasoned in their ranks, looked bewildered. “What is happening?” he growled, becoming distracted for a moment.

You and your friends never missed a beat. You used the mercenaries’ confusion to your advantage. “Cambridge Analytica!” you sang together, your voices rang out across the battlefield.

As the last of the mercenaries were knocked out, you regrouped, still singing the lines of the song.

Kate paused and looked confused when you all sang, “Robert Downey Jr, Iron Man.” Picking up her arrows she asked, “Wait, who’s Robert Downey Jr anyway?”

“No idea,” Peter shrugged, sending one more punch toward a waking mercenary. “Must be some old actor.”

Groot nodded, “I am Groot.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “Tony will know.”

Once your enemies were tied up and the area was secure, you made your way back to the Quin Jet. As you and the rest of your team boarded, still humming together, you found the ‘older’ Avengers sitting inside, their heads in their hands.

Bucky looked up first, his face a mix of annoyance and amusement. “Do you realize we have comms? We heard… everything.”

Steve sighed, rubbing his temples. “Every. Single. Note.”

With a raised eyebrow, Natasha made her way over to you. “Not the most conventional tactic, but it worked.”

You blushed slightly. “Sorry, we just got carried away.” Sharing a look with your friends, you all tried to stifle your laughter. Leaning back in your seat, you began to hum softly again as the Quin Jet lifted off.

“For the love of Odin, shut up!”

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fallowdoe · 8 months ago

Text

Deepfake

Uniting the realms is a tricky task - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

TW! SA and other heavy stuff

You're not sure when or where exactly you heard about it for the first time.

It might've been at RAD. Your fellow classmates didn't seem to consider this kind of topics to be "embarrassing", at least you didn't think so, considering how loud they'd be when discussing them. Most demons didn't consider taboo things that your human friends would talk about in hushed voices. Standing in the queue in the canteen would almost always result in learning the details of some random student's one-night stand. By simply walking by your classmate in the corridor you could learn all about their exact preferences in bed. The toilets seem to be drowning in conversations about what humans consider vulgar and obscene. Not to mention the kind of words you can hear passing by the changing rooms.

Even though your grandma would probably have a heart attack if she spent even just 5 minutes inside the academy, RAD is still an institution of high culture and all of this is considered to be rather good behaviour by Devildom standards.

Now that you think of it, maybe it was while on one of many shopping trips or errands, the brothers take you on. Devildom is loud and bright, it can be quite overwhelming no matter how long you've been here. It has the atmosphere of a Friday night, and most utilities are open 24/7, especially the clubs. Demons are loud, they want to be heard when they speak. Some are more reserved of course, but they rarely feel the need to make their conversations "private". If private was what they wanted they wouldn't speak about it at all, or at least wouldn't speak about it in the presence of countless strangers.

So just by going out, simply being among them, you learn things that would've never crossed your mind otherwise.

At least that's how you found out about this website.

It resembles blogs from the early 2000s. You know the ones, HTML, flashy and full of gifs, the sparklier the better.

It was fairly easy to find, which unfortunately doesn't take away from your worries right now. You just typed your name followed by a string of words related to 'porn' and the search engine served you exactly with what you were hoping was just a misunderstanding.

Well, it wasn't. The site you heard about earlier that day was now open for browsing on your laptop.

You've scrolled through the first few videos, some looked like they were just copied from pornhub or some other human site, but some had thumbnails that were rather… exotic.

There was a separate category for videos including humans, that was split into multiple sub-categories depending on various characteristics.

For now, you've decided to ignore the videos of random fetish clips of demon-human intercourse and keep scrolling.

You only stopped, when just a few seconds later it was your face staring back at you from the screen. In the thumbnail it was just you, blushing and sweaty, looking through the glass seductively at whoever stumbled upon the video. The title seemed like a string of clickbait words, but it made you nauseous.

''human MC addicted to riding demon cock, human, human exchange student, fucked into obedience, human pet [VIDEO]"

You pressed play.

Sure enough, it was you in the video, being fucked by multiple demons with all their demonic features out. Your body looked kinda different but your face was a perfect copy, the voice was also eerily similar to your own.

More videos started popping up underneath. All of which seemed rather similar to this one, although you've noticed that your body always looked different. It's as if whoever made those videos had no idea what you actually looked like and just improvised.

You scrolled back to the first video. Moans and whimpers reverberated through your head. Unlike most porn videos filled with fake over-pitched fake moaning and poor dirty talk, this one seemed to try and make it seem as "realistic" as possible. There was even some animalistic quality to it, the way this 'you' acted and how they were handled. Petted on the head, passed around by large, clawed hands. It reminded you of how you were called a cute little pet by different demons on multiple occasions.

You started skipping through the video, while this 'you' haven't uttered a single word besides some broken begging, it was all whining and mewling. Sharp breaths and stutters.

It was almost hypnotizing, seeing yourself whimpering and bending at different sexual angles to the camera.

You double-checked if your headphones were actually connected and if the sound didn't leak. The brothers often surprised you with how sensitive their hearing was, you could drop something or hiss after stubbing your toe and Mammon would burst into your room to check if you were still alive.

Having one of them come to check what those obscene sounds coming from your room were, was the last thing you needed right now. Especially since you knew, that they absolutely would come to check if they had really heard moaning.

The demons in the video on the other hand were much more talkative than your digital pornstar copy, cooing at this fake you and laughing between each other. The word ''pet'' was used the most often.

"Aw, is our little pet tired already?"

"Come on pet, you can handle some more."

"Be a good little pet and stay still."

You've debated on watching some more videos but ended up saving the site and closing your laptop after finding one titled ''demon Lords Using Their Human Pet".

Your heart was beating loudly, luckily it calmed down after a few deep breaths. Another thing about the brothers was that they could also sense stronger emotions, again, they would come check on you.

Your laptop ended up stuffed between folded sweaters in your wardrobe. Just in case anyone was to open it and see… what they were not supposed to.

You stepped into the bathroom and stared at yourself in the mirror for a while, trying to make sure that every little wrinkle and freckle was in the right place. This right here is the real you, you reminded yourself, this here is real. Those videos are not.

You turned the sink on and splashed some cold water onto your flushed face. The intense heat in your cheeks started to finally go away. Maybe you should thank Lucifer for giving you a personal bathroom again. Your dishevelled form in the mirror certainly was glad, they didn't have to go to the shared bathroom and risk running into someone.

The clock on your D.D.D. mercilessly reminded you it was almost dinnertime.

A hoodie and some sweatpants should do a decent job of hiding the goosebumps your skin was covered with. You prepped yourself mentally and set off to see the same faces that were staring at you from a fake thumbnail just minutes ago.

The rest of the night went by rather uneventfully. The dinner was kind of unsettling, hiding your restlessness from the brothers was close to impossible. A random excuse about a nearby quiz was enough to cease any further questions. It didn't mean everyone believed you, though. Multiple sets of eyes watched you with determination, to figure out what was it, that was really bothering you. It reminded you of the way, you were stared at in those videos and only added to your uneasiness.

You went to bed feeling surprisingly numb, the discovery of that cursed site was apparently so shocking that it tired you out so much, that it made you fall asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow.

Not sure what to do with the revelations of last evening, you've decided to keep quiet about it in front of the brothers and instead start an investigation. If you wanted to keep the number of people who saw any of those videos to a minimum, you had to be smart about this. Your first candidate for interrogation could be no other than a fellow human.

Out of curiosity, you decided to add Solomon's name to the search you typed out earlier, but nothing came up. This means either Solomon's just not as attractive to demons physically, or he's not attractive because realistically you doubt they would be able to do any of that to him. Without the protection of so many powerful individuals, you had no way of protecting yourself. The thought added to your already alarmingly growing distress.

You've ambushed the sorcerer at RAD, in the library. Your strategy was to inquire about some 'rumours', instead of revealing what you had actually found. God forbid he asks you to elaborate. This way you could check if said 'rumours' were popular enough to reach him. Also, you didn't want to show him the videos for obvious reasons. Even if it wasn't your body, it still felt way too intimate.

To your surprise, Solomon didn't seem as concerned about it as you imagined (or maybe hoped?) he'd be.

"Oh yeah, there's a lot of that. The human-demon thing in general." The sorcerer didn't even look up from his book, as he explained. "It's always been rather popular if I recall correctly".

At your lack of reaction, he finally looked up and was met with your dumbfounded face, which made him smirk.

"Are you really that much surprised?" he asked.

"Yeah." was all you could muster right now. You felt your eyelid twitch. His reaction was, very painfully, much in character for him. The ever-unbothered wizard. The sky could fall and rivers could run blood, he'd barely acknowledge it if at all.

"They probably use shape-shifting to make them. It must be really weird to you, although… maybe it's some kind of computer editing…" He trailed off obviously more invested in how the videos are made, rather than why.

Of course, he didn't care. Why would he? It's not like it's his face, his fellow classmates fantasize about fucking. And if they did, he'd probably put an end to it faster than these deviants could finish jacking off.

The thought made you feel lonely, Solomon's humanity usually drew you to him, the same way you'd rather sit next to a woman than to a man on a crowded bus. The familiarity of sharing a similar struggle of being in a foreign realm usually brought you some comfort, and Solomon used to acknowledge that in the past, acting sympathetic towards you when speaking about Devildom and its inhabitants. But his reaction to your questions left you feeling solitary again, you didn't share this struggle, so he didn't care. Here's to hoping that you didn't make him curious enough to look anything up by himself.

Well, that wasn't very helpful, seemed like you were left on your own again. You thought about bringing it up with Lucifer but you'd probably die of embarrassment while trying to explain what you've found and why were you on this kind of site in the first place.

The evening came and you've found yourself opening the site once again. This time you've scrolled a little further and found a comment section. Great. Exactly what you were hoping not to find.

Curiosity quickly won with your initial hesitation and you started browsing through them, although you've instantly regretted your decision.

"I wish I could bend that little bitch over" "Royal pet needs to learn her role" "I would fuck you like a whore every day"

Real classy.

You debate yourself on whether to scroll further but just a few comments below something more sinister is hiding.

"I jack off every time I see her, one day I'll lock her in an empty classroom or sth and finally have my way with her"

And the replies were even worse.

"I can't wait to finally get her alone, I'd share tho. Put her ass free for taking in a corridor or a bathroom or sth, hard-working students deserve such a cute glory hole" "Can someone tag the guy who had her underwear pics again?" "Can't believe they let her study here anyway, a really poor excuse for having a human fucktoy"

Ain't that a sight for sore eyes. Now, you were left wondering whether you really were in danger. Would any of them actually act on these desires, or were they only brave when hiding behind a stupid nickname and an obscene picture of an anime girl?

That one thumbnail showed up on your screen again. Your body covered with hands grabbing at and holding you in different spots. The cursed title, which promised to show you "what's going on at House of Lamentation".

Click or don't click, the video had a decent amount of views. Judging by those comments earlier, your fellow classmates were no strangers to these sites. Had they seen it? Do they think about it whenever they see you talking with the brothers? Had any of them jacked off to it?

Would the brothers also look off? Probably, although it might be hard to tell, it's not like you know exactly what they look like underneath their clothes. Would they have their wings and horns out? Probably, judging by the other videos, perhaps to highlight, that they were powerful predators, and you were just a defenceless, frail thing.

Click. Sure enough, horns, wings and dicks out. Their faces were off, lacking in emotion, but it didn't seem to matter, as the focus of the video was on you. This one was good, they nailed almost all of your proportions. Someone must have taken a really good look at you.

In the video, you were dressed in a lacy set and sat on a big, elegant couch. The place was definitely not the House of Lamentation, but it did little to ease up your mind.

The next 60 minutes were filled with praises said with almost perfect copies of their voices. For 60 minutes you sat glued to your screen, headphones on, and watched as the "brothers" had their way with "you".

They'd hold you down and tear the lingerie off, praise you, stroke you and pass you around. You were sat in Lucifer's lap as he spread your folds for everyone to see and comment on how wet you were. Mammon had you ride his face, while Leviathan held your hair in a fist and made you choke on his dick. Satan would fuck you, ass up face down on the floor. Asmodeus had you riding him in some complicated position, and the twins both had you at once, standing.

Your mind was struggling to comprehend what were you seeing. You were distressed, cheeks flushed, eyes teary. Aroused too, who wouldn't be?

Focused on your laptop, hearing limited by your headphones, you didn't notice someone walk in.

You only realised someone was standing in front of you when a hand suddenly grabbed the headphones and pulled them right off your head.

"Damn human, I was knockin' like crazy here. Ya deaf now, or some?" Mammon asked looking kind of annoyed, as if you didn't let him in on purpose.

Luckily your laptop was placed in a way that didn't let him see the screen, which you quickly shut off. Your hastiness, nervousness, looks, well, all of it, definitely did make it look like you were caught watching something you shouldn't have, but Mammon either didn't notice or didn't care. Or maybe he did notice and care but was too embarrassed to tease you about it.

"I'm busy Mammon." You got up and strategically placed your laptop in an obscured spot that didn't draw attention and picked up a stack of papers from your desk to occupy your mind on something else.

"Yeah sure, ain't nothing like too busy to hang out with me. You've been holed up in here for like, the whole week human. You making me look like I'm a bad pet owner or some shit." he joked.

The pet thing made you wince, even though the joke made you laugh in the past.

"Please Mammon, I'm really not in the mood today. I promise I'll hang out with you later," you muttered, not even facing him.

He stood there with his hands on his hips. You know your ''I'm okay" act wasn't too convincing, but you were hoping he wouldn't care enough to dig further.

"No way, you humans need the fresh air stuff and all of that. We're going out, get dressed Imma wait here." he draped himself on your bed and pulled out his D.D.D.

Clearly unable to convince him you sighed loudly and stomped over to the bathroom. You were in no shape to go out tonight, knowing Mammon he probably wanted to have you go with him to a club or a casino, but the thought of crowds terrified you. Your mind running like crazy, all those demons there, must have seen it.

Before you know it tears start trailing down your knees and you're holding your breath in, kneeling on the floor.

Mammon is mindlessly scrolling the Devilgram and thinking about you. Something is going on with you, that much is obvious, but what is it? By now, every one of them has pointed it out. As your first man, it was obviously his duty to find out what was bothering you and put an end to it, but how to do it if you don't want to tell him?

You were doing something on your laptop when he walked in, maybe it really is schoolwork that got you so distressed? He got up and walked over to your desk.

Just as he was about to reach out for the device he heard some odd noises coming from the bathroom. He felt you, through the pact. How overwhelmed you were.

So he walked over to the door, opened it and sat down on the floor with you. The hug he gave you was stiff. Nervous, but genuine. It was so Mammon-like that it calmed you down almost immediately.

"Damn, just say ya don't wanna go next time." he joked and it made you laugh out loud.

He smirked, trying to play it confident, but having you so close flustered him. He tried to tone down his tsundere persona tho.

"So ya wanna tell me what's bothering you or do I have to find out myself?"

No way in hell you were telling him, or worse, showing him. Any of them.

You shook your head and put it on his shoulder, breathing finally slowing down.

"Come on, ya can't go around moping like that! Lucifer's gonna get his panties in a twist by saying sth like "You have to make a good impression as an exchange student." and then blame me!" Mammon's vivid gesticulation made your body sway every time he moved, and that made you laugh again. "Ha! I knew ya just needed some of the Great Mammon!" he beamed.

"I'm okay Mammon," you sighed "Just tired. Humans just get like this sometimes." you tried to redirect him once more.

"Pfft, you're the weirdest human I know MC. Not that you're weird or something. Not that I like you!" he returned to his tsundere ways.

While Mammon was busy denying and declaring his fondness for you, you tried to figure out the plan for the upcoming days. If you didn't get your shit together they'd eventually find out.

Was there a way to get rid of those videos altogether? Their amount might be a problem. If Diavolo was to find out about them would he be able to take them down? What if he knew? Never mind, you'd never tell anyway. The idea of having to explain what exactly they portray was too mortifying to even consider doing it.

The RAD curriculum included lessons on basic knowledge about different species and the rules by which they operate. You understood, to some degree, that demons didn't really get to make decisions the same way humans do. Their free will was limited by their desires, which weaker individuals were completely subject to.

Even with your limited understanding of how this world works, you could clearly see what a threat this situation was becoming to you. There were demons at RAD who watched the videos and were not afraid to voice their desires online. It was only a matter of time before one of them got to act on it.

You had to do something, but make sure you didn't turn it into an even bigger mess. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that you could do by yourself. Still, instead of straight up telling someone, you could try asking for advice without revealing the whole problem first.

Solomon already knew, but he didn't seem too bothered. You could ask Satan, but his curiosity would eventually lead to him finding out about the whole situation and no doubt dragging everyone else into it too. Barbatos was reliable, but not discreet like you needed. Lucifer and Simeon were also out of the question for similar reasons.

Who else? Beel and Belphie wouldn't help very much. Mammo would end up telling everyone, like Satan. Levi also didn't seem like a very good choice.

That left Asmo, who could either be really helpful or very, very unhelpful. You hesitated for a moment, pondering whether Asmodeus was the right choice. His attitude towards such matters might not be what you need, but if anyone could provide insight into how to handle the situation—or at least offer advice on damage control—it would be him. However, there was still the risk he might find this whole situation more amusing than alarming.

You sighed and leaned into Mammon’s shoulder a little more. For now, you weren’t ready to confront Asmo or anyone else about it. The overwhelming violation you felt from those videos still crawled under your skin. You couldn’t shake the image of your classmates walking past you, seeing you not as a person but as an entertainment, piece of meat to be fucked, then eaten.

And the thought that some of them wanted to act on those fantasies—physically cornering you in classrooms or hallways—was enough to make your stomach turn. What scared you the most was how powerless you felt in the face of it all. You were outnumbered and apparently actively hunted.

Mammon shifted beside you, likely sensing your nervousness "Oi, I dunno what's goin' on, but if someone's messin' with ya, just tell me, alright? I'm your first, remember? I'll kick their asses if they even think about it," he declared with a fierce determination that only made your heart sink deeper.

If only it were that simple. You weren’t sure how Mammon—or any of the brothers—would react if they found out what was actually going on. Would they be angry? At them? At you? Or would they find it too embarrassing to talk about, too awkward to address? Even worse, what if some of them didn’t take it seriously at all? You remembered Asmo laughing at the idea of certain demons’ fetishes and preferences—would he laugh at your distress?

A soft knock at the door startled you both. Mammon, ever the defensive one, stood up in an instant. "Who’s there?"

"It’s just me," came the soft voice of Beel. He opened the door slightly, sticking his head in. "I thought I smelled something… are you two okay?"

You forced a small smile. "Yeah, Beel. Everything's fine. Mammon was just being… Mammon."

Beel eyed you with concern, clearly not buying your half-hearted attempt at reassurance. "You should eat something, MC. You’ve barely touched your food lately."

You nodded, realizing how easy it had been to forget about meals amidst everything that was happening. "I will. I promise."

Beel lingered for a moment before he finally left, leaving you alone with Mammon again.

"Ya heard him," Mammon grinned, trying to lighten the mood. "Beel’s right—ya gotta eat. C’mon, let’s head down to the kitchen."

But the last thing you wanted was to face the rest of them again. Not after what you’d seen and the vile comments that still echoed in your mind.

"I’ll catch up in a minute," you said, standing up and brushing yourself off. "I just… need a minute."

Mammon didn’t look entirely convinced, but he gave a curt nod, seemingly aware that pushing too hard would only make things worse. "Fine, fine. But don’t take too long, alright?"

As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, you exhaled sharply. Alone again, you let yourself collapse onto the bed. Your mind raced as you stared blankly at the ceiling.

You needed a plan. Something. Anything.

Asmo was still a risk, but perhaps he was your best option. He knew the ins and outs of demon desires better than anyone, and if you framed it as a hypothetical situation, maybe he wouldn’t ask too many questions. Maybe.

Without thinking, you grabbed your D.D.D. and scrolled through your contacts, your thumb hovering over his name for what felt like an eternity. You bit your lip, hesitating one last time before finally sending a quick message.

You: Hey, are you free??

It didn’t take long for a reply to pop up, Asmo’s characteristic excitement already shining through his words.

Asmo: Of course, darling! Come to my room? Or should I come to yours?

You sighed. Maybe this was a good idea. Maybe Asmo would know how to handle this—or at least give you some advice on what to do next. Before your anxiety could change your mind, you quickly typed back.

You: I’ll come to your room.

Sure enough, he was waiting for you, draped over his lavish bed, manicured hands typing quickly at his D.D.D. The entire room shimmered with elegance—silk sheets, golden accents, everything carefully curated to reflect Asmo's refined tastes. He barely looked up as you entered, his eyes glued to whatever was captivating his attention on the screen.

"Hey," you greeted, cursing yourself internally for how stiff you sounded. If you wanted to keep your dignity intact, this had to be a top-tier performance. You needed to act casual, as if this was just another lighthearted conversation, even though your insides were twisted in knots.

"Oh?" His expression shifted slightly—still playful, but more focused now. "Do tell. It must be serious if it’s making you this tense."

Asmo finally looked up, offering you a slow, amused smile. “Darling! To what do I owe the pleasure of such a visit? And at this hour, no less,” he teased, clearly intrigued but not in the least bit worried.

You shifted, feigning nonchalance. “Gossip,” you said, a little too quickly. But maybe that worked. Maybe it would make you sound like you were just excited to share some juicy tidbit.

“Gossip?” He tilted his head, his interest visibly piqued. He set his D.D.D. aside, leaning back on his elbows with a playful glint in his eyes. “Oh, you’ve come to the right demon. Spill it. I’m all ears.”

“I heard some girls talking about one of the succubi I share classes with, the one with pink hair, that someone sent them some fake-ass videos of her online. It sounds made up, do you know anything about it?” You tried to make it sound believable, but there was a chance he’d see right through you.

Asmo’s eyebrows shot up, his expression shifting to one of curiosity. He leaned forward just a little, clearly intrigued by the mention of drama. “Oh, her?” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, his eyes sparkling with interest. “Fake videos, you say? Mmm, that does sound like the kind of low-effort gossip that circulates from time to time. But I haven’t heard anything… yet.”

He paused, studying your face with a knowing look, as if he was assessing whether you were holding something back. Then, with a grin, he reclined back against the pillows, folding his arms behind his head. “But you know how these things go. If it’s fake, it’ll blow over. If it’s real… well, things could get juicy.” He laughed lightly, still clearly enjoying himself.

You felt a small wave of relief wash over you—he wasn’t pressing too hard, at least not yet. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Just another rumour,” you said, trying to sound casual. “I figured if anyone would know, it’d be you.”

“Well, darling, you’re not wrong.” He gave you a conspiratorial wink. “But even I can’t catch every scandal the moment it breaks.” He shifted, now leaning on one arm, his expression still playful but a little sharper, as if he was waiting for you to drop something juicier. “So, is that really all you came to tell me? Or is there something more interesting you’re holding back?”

Your heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t fully bought the story, but it seemed like he wasn’t going to push you too hard—at least not yet. You might be able to poke around the topic some more.

“I saw some of it on their D.D.Ds,” you continued, trying to keep your voice casual, “didn’t look fake at all, though.”

Asmo’s smile widened, his amusement unmistakable. “That’s the point, lovely,” he purred, clearly enjoying this far more than he was letting on. “If you’re going to stir up a scandal, it has to be convincing.” He crossed his legs elegantly on the bed, his gaze steady on you, as though savouring the tension in the air. “So, tell me—how good was the fake? Scandal-worthy, or just amateur work?”

You hesitated again, feeling that tight knot forming in your stomach, but backing out wasn’t an option anymore. “It looked pretty real to me,” you said with a casual shrug, forcing yourself to look nonchalant. Slowly, you walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, trying to seem more at ease even though your nerves were screaming otherwise.

Asmo’s gaze followed your every move, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly as you sat beside him. “Mmm, impressive,” he mused softly, shifting his weight closer to you. His hand trailed lazily across the silk sheets until it landed near your thigh, his fingers just grazing the edge of your leg. “You know, darling, I can always tell when someone’s holding something back from me.” He tilted his head, his voice still light and teasing, but there was a flicker of intensity behind his words. “You’re not telling me everything, are you?”

Your breath hitched as he leaned in slightly, his hand moving to rest more firmly on your leg now. The warmth of his touch sent a shiver up your spine, and you knew he was pressing for more. “How do they even make those videos look so real?” you asked, your voice sounding a little too innocent.

Asmo chuckled softly, his fingers beginning to trace idle patterns on your leg, clearly enjoying the effect he was having on you. “Oh, darling, it’s not that hard if you know the right tricks. A little magic, a little creativity… but why are you so interested?” His voice dropped lower, smooth and inviting, but there was an edge of curiosity sharpening in his tone now. “You’re asking a lot of questions. What’s got you so curious?”

You felt his hand slide a bit further, his touch becoming more deliberate, and it took everything in you not to flinch. The air felt thick with tension, and you could feel his gaze boring into you, waiting for you to crack.

Before you could answer, the door flew open with a loud crash, startling both of you. “Oi! What’s goin’ on in here?!”

You felt like eyes followed you everywhere you went these days, a heavy, invisible weight pressing on you no matter where you were. It started subtly at first—a glance here, a passing look there—but now it felt constant, like you were under a spotlight you hadn’t asked for. Yesterday at the café Lament the waiter couldn't stop looking your way, lingering with his gaze even as he took Satan’s order. You tried to ignore it, but it gnawed at you, that strange intensity in his eyes.

Then there was Majolish. The cashier had given you a look so unnerving it left a cold pit in your stomach like he was part of some inside joke that you were on the wrong side of. His eyes had scanned you with that same, unsettling awareness, as if you were missing something crucial.

It didn’t stop there. Later, at the grocery store with Beel, you found yourself using his broad frame like a shield, hiding behind him as you paid for your snacks. You didn’t even want to look the cashier in the eye, afraid you'd catch another one of those unsettling stares. You weren’t sure if it was real anymore or just your imagination, but every glance felt heavy, charged with something more than simple curiosity.

Every demon you passed in the street seemed to watch you, their gazes lingering just a little too long. You’d always drawn attention in the Devildom—being human in a world of demons was enough to make anyone curious—but this was different. This wasn’t casual glances or fleeting interest; it felt like scrutiny. The paranoia began to creep in. Had they always been staring like this? Or had it only started recently, and you were just now noticing? Every side glance felt like a threat, every whisper behind your back like it was meant for you.

Each day it grew worse, and you couldn’t help but wonder: what did they see when they looked at you?

You didn’t have to wait long for an answer.

Exactly a week after discovering those damned videos, you found out just how real the abstract threats in the comments could be.

The hot, slimy trail of a tongue dragging along the curve of your neck made you shudder in disgust. Your skin crawled, muscles tensing involuntarily as the bile rose in your throat. The demon had you pinned beneath him, your wrists bound in one of his clawed hands while his other hand fumbled impatiently with your uniform blazer. His grip was vice-like—no matter how much you thrashed, how desperately you squirmed beneath him, it was as if he didn’t even notice. You were nothing more than a rag doll under his weight, your feeble attempts at escape met with complete indifference.

The dark corridor echoed with your own ragged breaths, the distant bustle of more crowded areas seemingly worlds away. Panic clung to you like a second skin, your heart hammering violently in your chest, but your mind was racing too fast to keep up with any plan of escape. You didn’t even notice that you were walking into the more secluded section of the library, only understood when someone grabbed you and dragged you out into the back corridor connecting it with an unused part of the building.

“Stop…please!” You gasped out, voice shaking, but your attacker didn’t listen. He was too busy reliving some sick fantasy of his own.

“Oh, sweetheart, you should’ve known better.” His voice was rough, taunting as if he were savouring your fear. His breath was hot against your ear, his words dripping with malice. “You put yourself out there. On that site. Now you’ve got my attention.”

He tugged at your blazer with more force, buttons popping loose, the fabric pulling tight against your skin as he worked to expose more of you. Your chest heaved, your mind screaming at you to fight harder, to do something, anything, but it was like your body refused to obey. All you could do was kick out weakly, your legs pinned under his weight as he continued, relentlessly.

You felt his sharp nails graze your skin, making you flinch, the sensation like needles against your bare flesh. In a desperate attempt, you tried to call on your pacts but couldn’t focus enough to do so.

The cold air hit your exposed chest and you whined loudly. This seemed to excite your assaulter even more.

“Yes! More sounds like this!” he laughed crazed and started working on your pants.

The zipper was barely holding on when the weight on top of you was suddenly yanked away with a force so powerful it made your head spin. You gasped, struggling to process what had just happened, your heart still thundering in your chest as you scrambled back, pushing yourself up against the cold wall. Through your blurred vision, you saw a familiar figure standing tall. You had a hard time understanding what exactly was happening. All you could focus on were the pained whimpers of your assaulter and how blood dripped on the floor from where Lucifer’s claws were piercing his skin.

Mammon appeared in front of you. He silently took his own blazer off and helped you cover yourself with it. You clutched the fabric tightly, desperate for any shred of normalcy. His lips moving, but the only sound that reached your ears was a dull, persistent ringing. You could see he was saying something—something important, no doubt—but your mind was too overloaded to comprehend. Everything felt distant, and surreal, like you were trapped in a nightmare you couldn’t wake up from.

He reached out, his hand trembling slightly as he brushed a strand of hair away from your face. His touch was warm, and gentle, so at odds with the raw violence still playing out behind him. He tried to lift you, but it was then that you realized just how badly you were shaking. Your legs felt like they weren’t even there, your body completely stiff from the overwhelming rush of adrenaline coursing through you.

“Mammon?” You choked out, your voice barely a whisper you couldn’t hear yourself, the adrenaline making your muscles completely stiff. Your throat burned, and you weren’t sure if it was from the panic or the strain of trying to speak.

There was a brief flicker of uncertainty in his eyes as if he was trying to assess just how bad things were. Then, without another word, he scooped you up into his arms, holding you close against his chest. The world around you swayed, but Mammon’s grip was firm, protective.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got ya,” he muttered under his breath, though whether he was speaking to you or himself, you couldn’t tell.

As Mammon turned, his gaze locked with Lucifer’s. The tension between them was palpable, but there was an unspoken understanding in that brief exchange. Lucifer’s hand was still gripping the now limp demon, his expression still cold and merciless. “Go back to the House of Lamentation,” he simply stated. “I’ll take care of this.”

“Did you see any of it?”

“I didn’t watch any,” Solomon replied evenly. “I assume that’s what you mean.” His face betrayed no emotion, no hint of pity or judgment—just the steady, calm demeanour you’d come to expect from him. “But I saw how many there were.”

His words hung in the air, a weight you couldn’t quite shake. You didn’t need the details. The sheer volume alone was enough to twist the knife already lodged deep inside you. Solomon’s tone wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t gentle either. And that was exactly what you needed right now.

The past few days had been a blur of forced smiles and constant hovering. The brothers, despite their good intentions, had treated you like you were made of glass—afraid that at any moment, you’d shatter into a thousand irreparable pieces. Lucifer had barely let you out of his sight, his protective instincts at an all-time high. Mammon hovered too, quieter than usual, though his fierce glances at anyone who so much as looked at you made his feelings clear. Asmo helped you get rid of any physical evidence of what you went through. Everyone was checking in on you every few hours, trying to distract you from your own thoughts.

It was suffocating.

Solomon, on the other hand, didn’t fuss. He didn’t crowd you with reassurances or treat you like you were some delicate porcelain doll. He was here, offering silent support, but allowing you space to breathe. You were grateful for that.

“Thanks for not… hovering,” you mumbled, feeling a small knot of tension ease as you sat down across from him.

He smiled faintly, a knowing glimmer in his eyes. “I figured you’ve had enough of that by now.” He, of course, wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t follow it up with “It was really stupid of you not to tell anyone”.

“I kind of assumed everyone knew,” you admitted. “Besides, how would you even picture that? Hey, there’s fake porn of me all over the web, what do I do?” “That’d be a good start you know.”

You groaned, leaning back in your seat. “Easy for you to say.”

“Perhaps. But keeping it to yourself only made things worse.”

Before you could retort, a soft knock on your door broke the tension. Lucifer stepped inside, his presence immediately filling the room with his usual commanding aura. His sharp gaze flicked to Solomon, sitting a little too comfortably on the edge of your bed, and his eyebrows scrunched in subtle disapproval. He didn’t say anything about the sorcerer’s proximity, but the air in the room shifted slightly.

Lucifer cleared his throat, stepping further into the room with the weight of something official behind him. “I spoke with Diavolo,” he began, his tone formal, measured, “and on his behalf, along with the entire Student Council, I would like to extend our deepest apologies for the—” he paused, clearly choosing his words with care, “—misfortune of both the assault and the online incident.”

You groaned, louder this time, and fell face-first into your pillow, muffling a frustrated sigh. “Please, please tell me you’ve found a way to get rid of those.” You lifted your head just enough to eye Lucifer, your voice laced with desperation. “Or at least tell me that none of you showed any to Diavolo as an ‘example.’” There was a long pause, and Lucifer’s silence was deafening. You groaned again, louder this time, burying your face back into the pillow. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“He was informed of the situation,” Lucifer continued, his voice flat, but there was the slightest tension at the edges. “But no explicit material was shown to him directly. Rest assured, we are working tirelessly to remove any trace of those videos.”

Solomon, ever the opportunist, smirked. “It must’ve been quite the conversation. Diavolo doesn’t strike me as someone who’s used to handling such… delicate topics.”

Lucifer shot him a sharp look, clearly not in the mood for jokes, before returning his attention to you. "This is being taken very seriously. Diavolo is personally overseeing the investigation as he considers this to be a, hm, personal failure I suppose. But it will take time and might not be as effective as we’d like."

You sat up, pressing the heel of your hand to your forehead. The whole situation felt like a nightmare, a weight that wouldn’t lift no matter how hard you tried to shake it. "I know it’s hard to get rid of something on the internet, especially with some of those freaks probably working overtime to make more," you muttered, a bitter edge creeping into your voice.

Solomon snorted softly at your remark, his expression turning wry. "You're not wrong. The internet’s a hydra—cut off one head, and two more appear."

You sighed, sinking deeper into your frustration. "But I was hoping Diavolo could just, I don’t know, magic it all away? Wave his hand, say some ancient words, and poof—this whole nightmare's over. Everyone forgets, and I go back to not being… whatever this is."

Lucifer's expression softened, though there was a weight in his eyes. "I understand why you'd hope for that, but even Diavolo’s magic has limits. I promise that until it all dies down you have nothing to fear, we’ll be taking more precautions for your safety from now on.”

You sat up again, feeling a mix of exhaustion and determination settle into your bones. "I appreciate all of the concern, really. But until this all goes away, I’m still stuck feeling like… well, like this." You gestured to yourself, feeling the weight of all the unwanted attention you’ve received so far. The video featuring you with the brothers came to your mind and you flinched, the thought of anyone you knew watching it felt especially mortifying.

A wave of exhaustion washed over you, and your eyelids grew heavy, the weight of everything finally catching up with you. You tried to shake it off, but your body felt like it was made of lead. Before you could voice your fatigue, Solomon already excused himself from your room bidding you good night.

The silence that followed felt both comforting and isolating. You allowed yourself to lean back against the pillows, the plush fabric cradling you as you closed your eyes. A soft sound in the darkness caught your attention—Lucifer’s footsteps approached, and you opened your eyes just enough to see him lingering in the doorway.

“Are you alright?" he asked, his voice low and steady.

You nodded slowly, even though you weren’t entirely sure it was true. "Just tired."

"Rest, then," he said, his tone gentle but firm. "You’ve faced enough for one day. I’ll be nearby if you need anything." Feeling a small spark of reassurance, you allowed yourself to sink deeper into the pillows to dream your uneasy dreams.

#obey me #obey me!#obey me shall we date #obey me! shall we date?

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inevitably-johnlocked · 2 months ago

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I was curious if you know of any more updated or current-date Johnlock fics, where the cases are more up-to-date regarding crimes?

Like involving or focused on AI, social media, digital surveillance, and global connectivity, exploring how these technologies shape the investigations and the characters' interactions. How the blogs have evolved into newer versions like substacks or a Medium account? The downfall of Twitter into the hellscape of X? How something like the Richard Brook incident could have happened using AI? How Mycroft and NSY use updated surveillance?

Like a case that starts with a cryptic message online or attack through John's substack subscription, or a mysterious figure using deepfakes to commit crimes?

Still ending up with Johnlock of course, just newer details that make it seem like it's happening today vs 2010.

Thanks for all of your wonderful help and lists, I couldn't navigate this huge fandom without them! ❤️

Hey Nonny!

Ooooh, this is a good question. hmm. I feel like I may have come across them before but my brain is so fried from work at the moment that I am not recalling any of them.

Anyone have something to suggest??

#steph replies #johnlock fic reqs #social media fics #case fics #social media case fics #help steph find fics

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azspot · 1 day ago

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Generative AI presents a number of immediate threats to learners’ rights, amplifying the known threats from so-called predictive AI (though the two are increasingly used together in educational systems and dealt with together in educational policy). Channelling the knowledge available to young people through anglo-centric, proprietary and normative data platforms is a risk to their cultural and epistemic rights. Releasing AI-generated content into digital platforms and attacking public sites with AI crawlers, agents and deepfakes deprives young people of free access to digital information and culture, while diminishing their own opportunities for cultural production. These harms affect young people of minority languages and cultures to a greater degree. And there is increasing evidence (see below) that the use of chatbots in school work and pedagogic interactions is harmful to young people’s intellectual and social development, and so undermines their right to the fullest development of their potential as laid out in the UN CRC.

How the right to education is undermined by AI

#ai #education

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jbird-the-manwich · 1 month ago

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i havent been active in online witch or occult communities lately because of the decay i've witnessed but i just wanted to say i've always respected your presence on the internet, especially my younger self, it was good to be exposed to varying opinions. but i wanted to say i relate. the name "gemma gary" sets off a neuro response in me, not because anythings wrong with her, but because it's All. I. Hear. or it was when i was active. she was like, the golden standard or something to the people i was with. and i didn't get it. and there's a whole lotta other shit. but i just wanted to thank you for mentioning it with some of the posts you've made. i'm from the southeast and struggle to click with a lot of shit and then am expected to act like an English witch or cunning person or whatever. I'm not. Yeah, I'm drunk while writing this. But I've wanted to thank you for all you've contributed to this site with your input, and indirectly to a several years younger me who thought you were cool.

oh. well thank you. That's very sweet of you. yeah I learned a lot of people on the witchternet are basically trekkies, but about witches. its like a historical trivia-off. anytime a place is mentioned of having witchcraft in it the trekkies come out and eat it all like locusts and then roll their eyes at anyone that isn't in on the tourism. I think it's kind of insulting honestly. it'd be nice to see fewer people name-dropping traditions they have at best a fourth or fifth order separation from, especially seeing as I too am from a region and tradition very popular to pilfer for lore to misrepresent later. it becomes very insulting cosplay. and tbh if your area doesn't grow blackthorn and your place on the timeline has bacitracin you are not really demonstrating much in referencing that according to the pharmacological model of 1687 treating that wound with herbs that also don't happen in your region means serious witch business. if you wanna be the best ghostbooter of the 1600s that's a very achievable goal in two hours with wikipedia access. it's also several hundred years behind massive updates to the worlds knowledge. The metaphysical models underlying legacy medical systems are handy for spellcraft and abstraction but i don't know why the trend is to try to freeze an image of the spiritual to a certain time and place that is not your own when the whole point of witchdom is getting shit done. Witches said "we're good at first aid" and trekkies said "oh nevermind that. Wortcunning, you called it? yeah thats heavy as shit. im ordering those plants on amazon, dried. no i can't remember the type of bacterial infection or its symptoms or where else you can get it or how to treat it with any medicine or any plants from my region with similar uses. why?"

tourists.

I do not personally have enough connection culturally to cornwall to need to know how they deal.

I have no idea how many seagulls somebody in cornwall has to fight off daily. I don't need their knowledge of the sea. I am landlocked. it's none of my business and i have witchcraft at home. I'd take notes on what they did with what and why, if anything, and be done with it.

and I know. I dont get it. it was an initiation! a test of their skills! their skills to survive death! in a timecapsuled meta-meta that has shit all to do with me. or most of the people hunting so desperately for a manual on how to witch that they have to wear the skin of a different author every 2 years.

I have to know about timber rattlers, water moccasins, deepfake revenge porn, my friends epipen, and several large predators. you should study down your risk factors. not someone elses. lest you train for obscure minor skin infections endemic outside your region and handled by the ointemente ye already have in ye bathroome of arte when what ails ye be more alike to be a whole north american bobcat crawling all the way up into your asshole. Oh and get pepper spray. A witch should have a ranged attack. in case of parking lot buccas.

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schizofrienyya · 4 months ago

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A HYPOCHONDRIAC.

I THINK OF YOU, BLOOD PRESSURE SPIKES.

I'LL HAVE A HEART ATTACK.

I AM USING MY IMAGINATION.

songs I used for inspo:

#frienyya art #frienyya pix #homestuck #dirk strider

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mariacallous · 8 months ago

Text

As digital scamming explodes in Southeast Asia, including so called “pig butchering” investment scams, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issued a comprehensive report this week with a dire warning about the rapid growth of this criminal ecosystem. Many digital scams have traditionally relied on social engineering, or tricking victims into giving away their money willingly, rather than leaning on malware or other highly technical methods. But researchers have increasingly sounded the alarm that scammers are incorporating generative AI content and deepfakes to expand the scale and effectiveness of their operations. And the UN report offers the clearest evidence yet that these high tech tools are turning an already urgent situation into a crisis.

In addition to buying written scripts to use with potential victims or relying on templates for malicious websites, attackers have increasingly been leaning on generative AI platforms to create communication content in multiple languages and deepfake generators that can create photos or even video of nonexistent people to show victims and enhance verisimilitude. Scammers have also been expanding their use of tools that can drain a victim’s cryptocurrency wallets, have been manipulating transaction records to trick targets into sending cryptocurrency to the wrong places, and are compromising smart contracts to steal cryptocurrency. And in some cases, they’ve been purchasing Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet systems to help power their efforts.

“Agile criminal networks are integrating these new technologies faster than anticipated, driven by new online marketplaces and service providers which have supercharged the illicit service economy,” John Wojcik, a UNODC regional analyst, tells WIRED. “These developments have not only expanded the scope and efficiency of cyber-enabled fraud and cybercrime, but they have also lowered the barriers to entry for criminal networks that previously lacked the technical skills to exploit more sophisticated and profitable methods.”

For years, China-linked criminals have trafficked people into gigantic compounds in Southeast Asia, where they are often forced to run scams, held against their will, and beaten if they refuse instructions. Around 200,000 people, from at least 60 countries, have been trafficked to compounds largely in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos over the last five years. However, as WIRED reporting has shown, these operations are spreading globally—with scamming infrastructure emerging in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and West Africa.

Most prominently, these organized crime operations have run pig butchering scams, where they build intimate relationships with victims before introducing an “investment opportunity” and asking for money. Criminal organizations may have conned people out of around $75 billion through pig butchering scams. Aside from pig butchering, according to the UN report, criminals across Southeast Asia are also running job scams, law enforcement impersonation, asset recovery scams, virtual kidnappings, sextortion, loan scams, business email compromise, and other illicit schemes. Criminal networks in the region earned up to $37 billion last year, UN officials estimate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of this revenue is allowing scammers to expand their operations and diversify, incorporating new infrastructure and technology into their systems in the hope of making them more efficient and brutally effective.

For example, scammers are often constrained by their language skills and ability to keep up conversations with potentially hundreds of victims at a time in numerous languages and dialects. However, generative AI developments within the last two years—including the launch of writing tools such as ChatGPT—are making it easier for criminals to break down language barriers and create the content needed for scamming.

The UN’s report says AI can be used for automating phishing attacks that ensnare victims, the creation of fake identities and online profiles, and the crafting of personalized scripts to trick victims while messaging them in different languages. “These developments have not only expanded the scope and efficiency of cyber-enabled fraud and cybercrime, but they have also lowered the barriers to entry for criminal networks that previously lacked the technical skills to exploit sophisticated and profitable methods,” the report says.

Stephanie Baroud, a criminal intelligence analyst in Interpol’s human trafficking unit, says the impact of AI needs to be considered as part of a pig butchering scammer’s tactics going forward. Baroud, who spoke with WIRED in an interview before the publication of the UN report, says the criminal’s recruitment ads that lure people into being trafficked to scamming compounds used to be “very generic” and full of grammatical errors. However, AI is now making them appear more polished and compelling, Baroud says. “It is really making it easier to create a very realistic job offer,” she says. “Unfortunately, this will make it much more difficult to identify which is the real and which is the fake ads.”

Perhaps the biggest AI paradigm shift in such digital attacks comes from deepfakes. Scammers are increasingly using machine-learning systems to allow for real-time face-swapping. This technology, which has also been used by romance scammers in West Africa, allows criminals to change their appearance on calls with their victims, making them realistically appear to be a different person. The technology is allowing “one-click” face swaps and high-resolution video feeds, the UN’s report states. Such services are a game changer for scammers, because they allow attackers to “prove” to victims in photos or real-time video calls that they are who they claim to be.

Using these setups, however, can require stable internet connections, which can be harder to maintain within some regions where pig butchering compounds and other scamming have flourished. There has been a “notable” increase in cops seizing Starlink satellite dishes in recent months in Southeast Asia, the UN says—80 units were seized between April and June this year. In one such operation carried out in June, Thai police confiscated 58 Starlink devices. In another instance, law enforcement seized 10 Starlink devices and 4,998 preregistered SIM cards while criminals were in the process of moving their operations from Myanmar to Laos. Starlink did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

“Obviously using real people has been working for them very well, but using the tech could be cheaper after they have the required computers” and connectivity, says Troy Gochenour, a volunteer with the Global Anti-Scam Organization (GASO), a US-based nonprofit that fights human-trafficking and cybercrime operations in Southeast Asia.

Gochenour’s research involves tracking trends on Chinese-language Telegram channels related to carrying out pig butchering scams. And he says that it is increasingly common to see people applying to be AI models for scam content.

In addition to AI services, attackers have increasingly leaned on other technical solutions as well. One tool that has been increasingly common in digital scamming is so-called “crypto drainers,” a type of malware that has particularly been deployed against victims in Southeast Asia. Drainers can be more or less technically sophisticated, but their common goal is to “drain” funds from a target’s cryptocurrency wallets and redirect the currency to wallets controlled by attackers. Rather than stealing the credentials to access the target wallet directly, drainers are typically designed to look like a legitimate service—either by impersonating an actual platform or creating a plausible brand. Once a victim has been tricked into connecting their wallet to the drainer, they are then manipulated into approving one or a few transactions that grant attackers unintended access to all the funds in the wallet.

Drainers can be used in many contexts and with many fronts. They can be a component of pig butchering investment scams, or promoted to potential victims through compromised social media accounts, phishing campaigns, and malvertizing. Researchers from the firm ScamSniffer, for example, published findings in December about sponsored social media and search engine ads linked to malicious websites that contained a cryptocurrency drainer. The campaign, which ran from March to December 2023 reportedly stole about $59 million from more than 63,000 victims around the world.

Far from the low-tech days of doing everything through social engineering by building a rapport with potential victims and crafting tricky emails and text messages, today’s scammers are taking a hybrid approach to make their operations as efficient and lucrative as possible, UN researchers say. And even if they aren’t developing sophisticated malware themselves in most cases, scammers are increasingly in the market to use these malicious tools, prompting malware authors to adapt or create hacking tools for scams like pig butchering.

Researchers say that scammers have been seen using infostealers and even remote access trojans that essentially create a backdoor in a victim’s system that can be utilized in other types of attacks. And scammers are also expanding their use of malicious smart contracts that appear to programmatically establish a certain agreed-upon transaction or set of transactions, but actually does much more. “Infostealer logs and underground data markets have also been critical to ongoing market expansion, with access to unprecedented amounts of sensitive data serving as a major catalyst,” Wojcik, from the UNODC, says.

The changing tactics are significant as global law enforcement scrambles to deter digital scamming. But they are just one piece of the larger picture, which is increasingly urgent and bleak for forced laborers and victims of these crimes.

“It is now increasingly clear that a potentially irreversible displacement and spillover has taken place in which organized crime are able to pick, choose, and move value and jurisdictions as needed, with the resulting situation rapidly outpacing the capacity of governments to contain it,” UN officials wrote in the report. “Failure to address this ecosystem will have consequences for Southeast Asia and other regions.”

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