One such video seemed to show her daughter vaping, a practice the gym had strict policies in place against. Her mother, Jennifer Hine, 47, said in an interview that images from her daughter’s social media were either taken out of context or manipulated to make her daughter look like she was a bad influence at the gym.
On July 8, after the cheerleading gym had reopened amid the pandemic, Madi Hine, 17, was getting private tumbling coaching and waiting for a tryout when the owners approached her mother about anonymous text messages they had received with incriminating doctored media. Spone for comment by phone and email were unsuccessful, and it was unclear if she has a lawyer. Spone was arrested but released on the condition that she appear at a preliminary hearing on March 30. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Ms. Spone, of Chalfont, Pa., was charged last week with three counts of cyber-harassment of a child and three other counts of harassment. “This is something your neighbor down the street can use, and that’s very scary.” “This technology is not only very prevalent, but easy to use,” said Matt Weintraub, the Bucks County district attorney, whose office has been overseeing the case. With deepfake technology, people can take a still image and map it onto an existing video to disparagingly alter the appearance of someone. The police suspect that the altered media was created through deepfake technology, which is becoming both more sophisticated and accessible, playing into experts’ concerns that it can be used to harass or commit crimes. Raffaela Marie Spone was arrested but released on the condition that she appear at a preliminary hearing on March 30.