Edited images of Charli D’Amelio have been spread online, and although “leaked” images like these are not real, they are more harmful than you may realise.
It’s unclear where the image of Charli D’Amelio originally surfaced but the picture in question is a fake topless picture of the TikTok star pretending to pose on Snapchat with the caption “Ayo?”
The image is edited and not real.
The real image comes from a screenshot from Charli D’Amelio’s TikTok account, which features her in a mirror selfie pose in a blue bikini. It appears that a social media user has inappropriately edited the image via a screenshot, making it appear as a nude.
Some Twitter users have pointed out that her facial expression is different in the ‘leaked’ image than the bikini picture, but this is down to them both being screenshots from a video in which her face moves.
Why the ‘leaked’ image of Charli D’Amelio is harmful
Photoshopped or not, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that leaks of personal images of an individual are of course an invasion of privacy and wildly harmful. However, when the fact the images are not real is added into the equation, it only makes the impact worse.
Photoshopped images and deep fakes, edited videos of people, have been recognised as becoming increasingly more difficult to tell, and this edited image is proof of the harm these dupes can have.
Moreover, Charli D’Amelio is only 16-years-old and still a minor, making these ‘leaked’ images the sexualisation of a child. This of course only adds to how inappropriate and wrong the spreading of these images online is.
Fans have rushed to debunk the images
Of course, as the first TikTok star to reach 100 million followers on the app, Charli D’Amelio has an army of fans ready to defend her over these fake leaked images.
What has Charli D’Amelio said about the leaked images?
Since the fake leak of the photos, Charli spoke about them on her podcast with sister Dixie, 2 Chix, saying: “Someone took a screenshot of a TikTok of mine, from I don’t even know how long ago. And I was wearing a swimsuit. And they photoshopped my swimsuit top off. And tried to ‘expose’ me with it, as if the original video is not still posted on my account.”
Charli D’Amelio went on to reittirate that the leaked images aren’t her:
“Anyway, don’t believe everything you see on the internet. I was not going to address this because it’s just stupid, but I felt like it was important to get that out there. So if you see something of me, it was not me.”