Indiana Government Website Hosted Deepfake Porn Instructions
Well, buckle up, because the digital dumpster fire that is the Indiana state government website just got a whole lot hotter. For the better part of two weeks, anyone with a Google search bar and a curious mind could stumble upon a state-hosted treasure trove of how-to guides for creating AI-generated deepfake porn.
That’s right. The official online home of the Indiana Department of Health was, for a hot minute, doubling as a shady affiliate marketer for “Best no filter NSFW generator” apps. The documents, which have since been scrubbed in a frantic act of digital hygiene, were essentially tutorials on how to use AI to strip the clothes right off of people in photos. Nothing says “public health” quite like a state-sponsored guide to undress apps.
When the news broke, the government’s PR machine kicked into gear. Greta Sanderson, the chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Health, insisted this wasn’t a hack. Instead, she blamed a “significant surge in bot activity” on Nov. 19. It seems the state’s web portals, designed for wholesome things like public feedback, were instead abused by bots to upload and publish the illicit files. Google, doing what Google does, then happily indexed these digital landmines, making them searchable for all to see. Sanderson claims most of the files have now been deleted, which is reassuring until you remember they were there for nearly two weeks.
The state’s web provider, Granicus, is no stranger to this particular brand of chaos. They’ve seen this movie before with other government clients, explaining that public-facing forms meant to engage citizens can be weaponized by bad actors who upload garbage and let Google do the rest. “While the above feature was intended by governments to provide transparency and good customer service, it has been abused in these instances,” the company wrote in a statement that could win an award for corporate understatement.
The irony here is thicker than a brick. Indiana passed a law in 2024 making the creation or distribution of non-consensual deepfakes a misdemeanor. On top of that, a federal law signed by President Trump back in May makes publishing “revenge porn” a punishable offense. So, while the state was busy criminalizing the very thing its website was instructing people on how to do, its own digital front door was wide open.
And this isn’t even Indiana’s first rodeo with the seedy side of AI. Back in August, the state was rocked by allegations that staffers in the Lieutenant Governor’s office were passing around a deepfake video showing a state lawmaker’s wife topless.
So, to recap: the same government that criminalizes deepfake porn accidentally became a distributor of deepfake porn tutorials, while its own staff was allegedly enjoying deepfake nudes on the taxpayer’s dime. It’s a masterclass in digital incompetence, a state-level case study in how not to manage a web presence. You almost have to admire the sheer, unadulterated chaos of it all.
