The actor condemns ‘runaway train’ of unregulated slander, baseless claims and deepfakes that have dogged her in recent years
Jennifer Aniston has expressed her disdain for social media and its exploitative effects, saying: “It has taken down a huge portion of humanity.”
Aniston was speaking to Harper’s Bazaar to coincide with a new season of The Morning Show, the TV series in which she plays a TV presenter opposite Reese Witherspoon. Aniston, who has been the target of media and online gossip for decades, was withering in her criticism, saying: “I’m sure the guys who came up with [social media] thought it was a great idea and, yeah, congratulations on your billions, but it has taken down a huge portion of humanity.”
She also suggested that the treatment she received from tabloid and magazine gossip writers in the 1990s and 2000s, focusing on her relationship with her former husband, Brad Pitt, and her fertility issues, has simply moved online. “So now any schmuck can stay anonymous and write whatever the hell they want to write.”
Aniston also said she has regularly been the victim of deepfake images, a phenomenon that is reflected in a plotline in The Morning Show. “I catch things all the time,” she said. “Or friends send me things saying, ‘I don’t think this is you’, or ‘I don’t think you’re advertising this’, and I’ll send it to my lawyers so they can do a cease-and-desist. It’s just such a runaway train.”
