Woman made deepfake videos to force daughter’s rivals off cheerleading team, police say

A 50-year-old mother has been arrested for sending deepfake photos and videos of her daughter’s cheerleading rivals – in an alleged attempt to get the other team members kicked out of the squad.

The pictures show the girls naked, drinking, or smoking, and were sent to the team’s coaches.

Raffaela Spone, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has since been charged with two misdemeanour counts of cyber harassment of a child, and related offences.

A statement issued on the Hilltown Township Police Department’s website said: “In July of 2020, the Hilltown Police Department began an investigation into the report of a juvenile being harassed via text message.

“During the course of the investigation, additional juvenile victims of harassment came forward. The victims were all found to be part of a cheerleading group based in the Doylestown area.

“As part of the investigation, police executed multiple search warrants to determine the origin of the harassment. The investigation led police to an adult female who was affiliated with the cheerleading group.”

Spone has now been released from custody, on the basis she attends a preliminary hearing on 30 March.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, she allegedly edited photos of at least three members of her daughter’s cheerleading team, Victory Vipers.

One of those is the daughter of George Ratel, who said he doesn’t understand what could have possessed her to do it.

He said: “I don’t know what would push her to this point. As a dad I was pretty upset about it. It’s an image put out there of my daughter that is simply not true.”

During the investigations, the police found that videos were created through “deepfakes” using the girl’s social media photos.

They tracked the activities to Ms Spone’s house, and upon examination of her phone, found evidence linking her to the texts and images the girls had received.

Deepfakes use a form of artificial intelligence called deep learning to make images of fake events. They are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else’s likeness, making people appear to have said or done something they have not

There’s no evidence to suggest Spone’s own daughter knew about her mother’s actions.

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