[_petronius]

Not so much controversial, as evidence that you completely lack capacity for empathy and you should do some serious self-reflection. This is just a really vile and amoral view to hold.

People are being hurt by this, because "just pixels on a screen and bytes on a disk" can constitute harm due to the social function that information serves.

It's like calling hurling insults at someone as "just words" because no physical violence has occurred yet. The words themselves absolutely can be harm because of the effect they have, and also create an environment that leads to further, physical violence. Anyone who has experienced even mild bullying can attest to that.

Furthermore women and girls are often subject to online harassment and humiliation. This is of course part of that -- we aren't talking about fictional images here, we are talking about photos of real people, many who are children, being manipulated to shame, humiliate, and harass them sexually, targetted at women and girls overwhelmingly.

Advocating for the freedom to commit that kind of harm against other people is gross, and you should reconsider your views and how much care you have for other people.

[drcongo]

The fact that this has downvotes speaks volumes about HN users.

[scotty79]

Who knew users of HACKER news wouldn't be in favor of suppressing technology and exchange of information whatever it might be for mainstream morality reasons.

[nomel]

Or, it's that

> we aren't talking about fictional images here, we are talking about photos of real people, many who are children,

is not compatible with what GP actually said

> it's clearly wrong when it concerns actual children

> No living creature was actually hurt when producing these images and cannot be hurt by them.

making these overly dramatic character attacks seem mostly silly

> you completely lack capacity for empathy and you should do some serious self-reflection. This is just a really vile and amoral view to hold.

> Advocating for the freedom to commit that kind of harm against other people is gross, and you should reconsider your views and how much care you have for other people.

And everyone clapped.

[exodust]

It's just manipulated photos. No need to panic.

Everyone knows photos can be easily faked. The alarmist response serves no purpose. AI itself can be tasked to make and publish fake photos. Will you point pitchforks at the generators of the generators of the generators?

Fake content has a momentary fizz followed by a sharp drop-off and demotion to yesterday's sloppy meme. Fading to nothing more than a cartoon you don't like. Let's not, I hope, go after "cartoons" or their publishers.