Ride the Lightning

Real Life Deepfakes Come to a Cheerleading Squad

March 18, 2021

I expected to see more deepfakes in new arenas, but as harassment involving girls on a cheerleading squad? That I would not have predicted.

The Washington Post (sub.req.) reported on March 13 that an anonymous cyberbully in Pennsylvania seemed to have one goal in mind: Force three cheerleaders off their very successful local team, the Victory Vipers.

Doctored images were sent to the coach of the competitive squad that seemed to show the teen girls in humiliating or compromising situations that could get them booted from the team, like appearing nude, drinking alcohol and using drugs, according to the criminal complaint.

In anonymous texts and calls, the bully told one girl “you should kill yourself.”

Raffaela Spone, a local cheer mom whose daughter is on the team, has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of cyber harassment of a child and related offenses, according to the Bucks County District Attorney.

For more than two months last year, Spone allegedly used at least four phone numbers and various apps and online tools to manipulate images and mask her actions to carry out her cyberbullying attacks, according to the criminal complaint.

This incident of cyber harassment is notable for the use of “deepfake” technology said Buck County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub.

“This is one of the first instances where we’ve seen it used where an adult is targeting a juvenile,” Weintraub told The Washington Post. He said cases of using Internet-based technology to make threats — bomb threats and altered photos masked by the dark web — are rising, but that they have largely been on what he called a “juvenile-to juvenile plane.”

If convicted, Spone could face from six months to a year in prison, though Weintraub said the maximum penalty for low-level misdemeanors is unlikely.

While creating or sending images of minors naked or involved in real or simulated sexual situations normally would carry stronger charges, Weintraub said the description of the images as “nudes” is somewhat imprecise: In the videos, the victim’s bikini is digitally removed and overlaid with skin-toned bars creating what Weintraub described as Barbie doll-like effect.

“It would seem the intent was to make it appear nude, but with no obvious genitalia,” he explained, bluntly calling the videos an effort to “slut-shame” the victim. Otherwise, he said, Spone would have been charged “with a much more serious felony offense.”

Deepfakes are often connected with political motives or sexual motives, where a famous actress is used to create a deepfake porn video.

Spone allegedly scraped photos from the victims’ social media profiles and doctored the images to suggest nudity, drinking alcohol or vaping before sending them to the cheer team coach. Spone allegedly began to harass her first target in July 2020, creating a nude video of the girl and sending her messages urging her to kill herself.

In August, parents of two other girls on the team told Hilltown Township police investigators their daughters were being similarly targeted.

After investigators subpoenaed information on the IP address where the threats were originating, the said, they were led to Spone’s address in Chalfont, PA.

The criminal complaint did not identify Spone’s daughter or the three victims by name. It does not appear that Spone’s daughter knew about or had any part in the alleged harassment.

In a statement, the co-owners and coaches of the Doylestown, Pa.-based cheer team expressed sympathy for the families involved and said the behavior alleged in Spone’s criminal charges is contrary to their group’s policies.

“When this incident came to our attention last year we immediately initiated our own internal investigation and took the appropriate action at the time,” Mark McTague and Kelly Cramer, who co-own the Victory Vipers gym, told The Post via email. They said they immediately cooperated with police and noted that “All athletes involved, are no longer [a part] of our program.”

Why the harassment? The Philadelphia Inquirer, which first reported the story, spoke to a father of one of the victims who said his daughter and Spone’s were initially friends; he believes the harassment started after his wife discouraged their child from hanging out with Spone’s daughter.

And that apparently started the harassment. It is amazing what people will do these days – and how unaware they are that they may well be caught and punished. A deeply disturbing story.

Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President, Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
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