Imagine waking up to find your most intimate images plastered across social media platforms and search engines—whether authentic or AI-generated. How would you cope? What could you do? Host Jessica Buchleitner delves into the dark side of media technology, exploring how the transition from 90s VHS tapes to today’s generative AI has fueled the rise of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), also known as “deepfake pornography” and “revenge porn.” Joined by Susanna Gibson, founder of My Own PAC, and Andrea Powell, co-founder of Alecto AI, the discussion uncovers the devastating toll NCII takes on victims’ mental health, reputations, and professional lives. Their discussion addresses narratives inducing cultural stigmas, victim blaming, and the significant legal hurdles victims face. They highlight the latest advancements in U.S. state, federal, and international laws and offer actionable advice for those affected. This episode is a call to action, urging collective efforts to combat and criminalize NCII while empowering listeners to be a culture of change.
About Susanna Gibson, My Own PAC
Susanna Gibson is a Nurse Practitioner and advocate who lives outside of Richmond, Virginia. She currently serves on the board of Her Bold Move – a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support women in the countless and unique ways they require as they mount a run for office and work to get women elected to all of the rooms in our government where decisions are being made. Susanna has worked in healthcare for over 15 years, including several years as the Lead Advanced Practice Provider for the VCU Health Division of Geriatrics. During her tenure with the division, she served as the clinical lead for a joint medical home model venture between Medicaid, Virginia Premier Health Insurance and VCU Health, as well as participated in the CMS Demonstration Project Independence at Home. She is a passionate advocate for health equity and justice, and has a unique insight into the intersectionality of health with economic stability, education, environmental justice, gender, discrimination, social support systems, gun violence, and much more, from spending years providing home-based primary care in her community. Susanna served as the 2023 democratic nominee for the Virginia House District 57 and understands firsthand the distinct challenges female candidates face in the political arena. In 2024 she established “MyOwn” PAC as a direct response to her experience during her political campaign, when she realized she had been the target of nonconsensual pornography while simultaneously being subjected to Nonconsensual Distribution of Intimate Images as well as to severe and prolonged Image-Based Sexual Abuse, both online and in person.
About Andrea Powell, Alecto, AI
Andrea Powell is the co-founder of Alecto-AI and former Executive Director of Karana Rising where she supports advocacy and care for survivors of sex trafficking whose own trafficking led to their arrest and incarceration.. For the past 18 years, she has led national and international efforts to develop services, housing, and policies to advance the rights and healing of survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and sexual abuse. Andrea is also the Director of The Reclaim Coalition at Panorama, a global movement to end online image based sexual violence. In 2004, Andrea co-founded FAIR Girls, where she led her team for 14 years in providing case management services and establishing a safe home for survivors in Washington, D.C., and played a leadership role with the DC Human Trafficking Task Force. At Karana Rising, co-founded by Andrea in 2019, survivors lead to advance justice and healing with and for survivors who have experienced arrest and incarceration as a result of their own trafficking. Through these efforts, Andrea has served and interfaced with over 2,000 survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence in the United States, the Balkans, Russia, Bangladesh, India, and Uganda.