“Top-rated sellers” on the online marketplace are selling thousands of AI-generated and photoshopped pornographic images of public figures.
EBay is teeming with thousands of AI-generated and photoshopped pornography of at least 40 celebrities including Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez and Jenna Ortega. After Forbes notified eBay, the ecommerce giant took down hundreds of photos and suspended accounts of sellers.
One longtime seller’s shop of over 400 items included photoshopped nude photos of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others. Another seller sold hundreds of AI-generated nude images, including those of Jenna Ortega, Margot Robbie, and Gal Gaddot for $6.39.
The platform also hosts AI-generated sexually suggestive images of public figures. At least five such images of Taylor Swift, like one showing the pop star in a revealing American flag bikini, are being sold for $5.60 by a “top-rated seller” on eBay who has sold more than 14,000 items and is one of the online retailer’s “most reputable sellers,” according to their page. Top-rated sellers receive additional benefits from eBay like ranking higher in search results and getting financial perks, according to the program’s guidelines.
eBay’s recommendation algorithm also points interested shoppers to “similar sponsored items” from sellers who pay eBay a percentage from their sales if a shopper clicks on the item and purchases it. One such vendor, another top-rated seller, has sold over 2,000 items on eBay including fake pornographic images of personalities like Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer Anniston. For some fake pornographic images on eBay, it is unclear whether they have been manipulated with AI or another type of software.
“It’s not just the sellers. Companies like eBay are also profiting from image-based sexual abuse,” said Lina Nealon, an executive for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “They are commodifying women’s bodies and it’s egregious because it is without the consent and knowledge of those who are being depicted.”
While eBay allows sellers to post images depicting nudity (as long as it is listed under the art and collectibles categories) as well as AI-generated nude images of fake people, “AI generated or photoshopped nude or sexually suggestive images of public figures” are banned, according to its adult items policy. Yet, the platform is brimming with them.
“It’s not just the sellers. Companies like eBay are also profiting from image-based sexual abuse.”
Lina Nealon, VP of corporate advocacy at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation
While the company has pulled hundreds of photoshopped and AI-generated nude photos of celebrities from the site and banned sellers, it has left up sexually suggestive AI-generated photos of Taylor Swift that appear to violate its policy. A Swift representative declined to comment.
The company confirmed that it “is in the process of actively updating the policies in regards to deepfakes without nudity,” so that it is explicitly clear to sellers what is and what is not allowed on eBay.
Additionally, spokesperson Trina Somera said that the company uses a mix of “AI technology, professionally trained eBay investigators and sweeps of the marketplace” to identify and remove listings that violate eBay’s prohibited items policy. “Listings with AI generated or photoshopped celebrity adult images that violate eBay policies will be blocked or removed. Users found attempting to list prohibited items may face consequences up to, and including, a permanent suspension,” Somera said.
Representatives for Ortega, Gomez, Anniston, Lawrence, Perry, Grande, Robbie and Gaddot did not respond to a request for comment.
eBay isn’t the only platform where AI-generated pornographic imagery is proliferating. Reddit, X (formerly Twitter) and even Etsy, as Forbes first reported, are similarly grappling with an onslaught of AI-generated sexually explicit images. In late January, AI-generated nude photos of Taylor Swift went viral on X and were viewed millions of times on the social media platform. Soon after, legislators including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits (or DEFIANCE) Act, which provides victims of non-consensual deepfake pornography with remedies to take action against the creators and distributors of the content. “Victims of nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes have waited too long for federal legislation to hold perpetrators accountable…Congress needs to act to show victims that they won’t be left behind,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a press release.
While there are no federal laws in place to protect victims of deepfake pornography, three other bills have also been introduced in Congress to address these concerns, Nealon said. Today, Congress held a hearing on how the rise in non-consensual pornographic deepfakes impacts women and children and what steps can be taken to reduce harm.
“We really need federal laws and we need them quickly because as often is the case, technology is moving at a more rapid pace than our legislators, and we’re seeing this exponential increase with AI and with deepfake proliferation,” she told Forbes.
An eBay search for “celebrity” returns over 2.3 million listings, many of which are sexually suggestive and pornographic.
In addition to hosting thousands of crudely photoshopped nude photos of famous people, eBay is home to dozens of “AI-enhanced” images of public figures that are stamped with their signatures and selling for a higher rate of $10.95.
“Indulge in the extraordinary clarity and breathtaking detail of this AI-enhanced photograph,” reads the description for a nude image of Jennifer Lopez that appears to include her signature. “Every captivating expression, every magnetic gaze is flawlessly preserved, bringing Jennifer Lopez’s unparalleled charm and talent to life in exquisite detail.” Lopez did not respond to a comment request.
The problem is widespread. An eBay search for “celebrity” returns over 2.3 million listings, many of which are sexually suggestive and pornographic. (The same search on Amazon does not immediately surface AI porn).
Now with easy access to AI apps and open source software that can undress and “nudify” anyone, AI-generated pornography has been spreading rapidly, Nealon said. “Apple’s app store actually hosts several nudify apps. I found one just this past week that’s rated for ages 4-plus,” she said. “Meanwhile, you have Microsoft GitHub, which hosts some of the most notorious deepfake and synthetic sexually-explicit material technologies.”
Founded in 1995, eBay recorded $10.1 billion in revenue in 2023 and has a market cap of about $26 billion. The online marketplace is home to 132 million active buyers and 2 billion listings of products — everything from sneakers and video games to vitamin supplements and coffee tables. In September 2023, eBay launched its own generative AI tools that can generate product titles and descriptions after sellers upload an image of the item they want to sell. The tools were built using open source models and large language models from Microsoft Azure OpenAI. The online marketplace also laid off 1,000 workers, 9% of its workforce, in January 2024.
Sophie Maddocks, a research fellow at the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania, said she’s hardly surprised that it has become commonplace to find AI-generated pornographic images bubbling up across websites on the internet.
“If we zoom out and look at the longer history of the internet, we know that sex sells and sexualized imagery sells. And so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that platforms like eBay host such content,” Maddocks said. “There’s a broader context that plays into this idea that if you’re a famous woman, you can be stripped without your consent and somebody else can profit off your image without your consent. And that trickles down to everybody.”
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
