A Sex Doll Stole My Identity

Forget Deepfakes: A sex-toy company in Asia is “borrowing” the likenesses of Instagram influencers—without their consent—to create best-selling dolls

- James Trew

Yael Cohen is five-seven with chestnut hair and a Mediterranean complexion. She’s also five-four, blonde and with soft white skin. Sometimes she’s five-11, dark-haired and black. Your very own Yael is available to order, in any configuration you like, as long as you have the money.

Only one of those combinations describes the living, breathing Yael Cohen—a popular Instagrammer from Israel. Now 23 years old, she just completed four years of mandatory military service, during which she worked as a software engineer. Like many people her age, Cohen enjoys posting attractive pictures of herself on Instagram. She’s worked hard to build a following and enjoys interacting with her fans. As Cohen tells it, she decided to take ownership of her image and her right to feel sexy. This is the internet, of course, so some sexual objectification is unavoidable, but few could have predicted how literal that would be for Cohen.

About a year ago, Cohen received a message from one of her followers. It linked to a forum about sex dolls. When she clicked it, she was met with an eerily familiar face: hers. The thread was started by the doll’s maker, and it described a new “model” of head coming soon; this one was a rough prototype. Cohen brushed it offas a coincidence.