Judge Acquits Student Accused of AI-Driven Digital Violence

A student accused of altering and distributing thousands of images of students from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) using AI has been acquitted by Judge Francisco Salazar of all charges. The judge cited a lack of sufficient elements to link the suspect to the crime.

"He [the judge] told us that it could be accredited that there was a crime, that the affectation that the victims received was accredited, that the context of vulnerability in which the victims found themselves was accredited, however, he considered that Diego's probable participation could not be accredited," says Valeria Martínez, lawyer for the victims.

Salazar considered that the over 166,900 photos and more than 12,000 videos found on an IPad belonging to the suspect, Diego ”N,” were not sufficient proof that he committed the crime, writes El Universal.

The case against Diego "N" was unveiled on Oct. 6, 2023, when, after being reported on the portal Casi Creativos, around 20,000 AI-altered images were found on his electronic device, as previously reported by MBN. Diego "N" allegedly sold the AI-altered photographs on Telegram.

This trial marks a milestone in the fight against digital violence in Latin America, being the first in which the use of AI is directly linked to crimes of sexual exploitation, a trend that has been on the rise in recent years, as MBN previously reported.

Suspect Acquitted, Now What?

The court decision, which came after a hearing lasting more than five hours at the Reclusorio Preventivo Varonil Oriente, has generated controversy among the parties involved, writes  El País.

In addition to acquitting him of sexual exploitation without consent, the Public Prosecutor's Office has also charged Diego "N" with additional charges of human trafficking in the form of storing photographic material of minors performing real sexual acts. He will remain in preventive detention for this crime.

Martínez says  that an appeal will be filed before a district judge, alleging lack of expertise of the local magistrate. At the same time, although only two of the eight victims have reached the trial stage, it was reported that a third one will begin her hearing on Dec. 9, while the remaining five cases are still under review.

Activists and legal representatives argue that the judicial system continues to fail to protect victims of digital violence. "This sentence is not justice, it is complicity,"said an anonymous activist after the hearing.

Olimpia Coral, promoter of the Olimpia Law, a set of legislative reforms that aim to punish crimes that violate sexual intimacy through digital means, has also offered legal and emotional support to those affected.

"The IPN colleagues are going through a very difficult time. We ask them to organize until we make known the mobilizations that we will carry out. We will appeal through legal channels, we will continue denouncing through political channels," writes Coral on Instagram.