I grew up in the era of Photoshop and people would post fake nudes. Why is it now a big deal that AI is doing it? Kinda like the Taylor Swift thing on twitter.
It was a big deal back then, too, but a lot harder to police, and a lot more obvious that they were fakes.
Gillian Anderson fakes were real fuckin popular during the time the X-Files were on the air.
EDIT: Searching for women from the time talking about the phenomenon in the 90's is difficult because it mostly turns up... troves of fake nudes of these women. Of course.
I recall women heavily disliking it back then, but I also recall that people in general viewed the internet as just full of weirdos and creeps. Internet wasn't mainstream, by any stretch of the imagination, so I think it likely "got swept under the rug" because of a general feeling of "who cares what weirdos do online? We're real people and we never use the internet because we have lives."
Also, fewer lawyers understood the tech at the time, or how to figure out who was producing these images, and how to prosecute them. So I'd wager that part of going after them was held back by tech-unsavvy lawyers who were like "What's happening where and how? Dowhatnow? Can you FAX it to me?"
Did she ever unleash her wrath like the article says......Maybe the nerd in me but never wanted to see her naked just want to see her in a Princessesque Liae outfit. IYKYK