As the debate over AI, ethics, and consent continues to swell, a popular voice actress has been the target of harassment and has left Twitter.

Erica Lindbeck, the voice of Persona 5's Futaba Sakura and Insomniac's Spider-Man Black Cat, deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts over the weekend, Reddit fans discovered. This was in response to backlash from AI advocates for condemning a YouTube video she produced of a cover of Bo Burnham's song "Welcome to the Internet" that quoted her voice in "Persona 5."

Unfortunately, few tweets from the event remain, but screenshots have circulated on Reddit and Twitter. Lindbeck appears to have expressed frustration with the existence of AI-generated videos and tweeted a link with a request: "Please report this stuff, this is a violation." The call for mass reporting of the video apparently caught the attention of the trolls, who re-uploaded the video on social media in retaliation. Lindbeck later said, "The creators of the video are nice people-they sent me a message and apologized. I have no ill will towards them, and the next time something like this happens, I will deal with it in a different way."

In a further tweet, Lindbeck clarified: "Not specifically about *this* video or *this* creator. A content creator once made an AI video of my character (referring to the Loona character she played on the TV show Helluva Boss) and made disparaging remarks about the show I was on. They are literally putting words in my mouth that could easily be taken as mine. As an artist, that is very frightening. I absolutely believe that these people are creating this stuff for fun and are not fully aware of the potential negative impact that AI content can have on the people whose voices they are using. I never intended for these creators to be dogpiled."

Despite this, the harassment of Lindbeck appears to continue. The now-suspended account tweeted that the voice actor had started a "harassment campaign," adding that the video was "stupid and harmless" and pointing to monetization as a reason why it was no big deal. [Replies to the tweet were all supportive of Lindbeck, with fellow voice actors and the cast of "Persona 5" defending her in comments and retweets. Robbie Daymond, who voices Goro Akechi in the Atlus JRPG, tweeted, "About Erica Lindbeck. What the hell is wrong with everyone? Has social media and the Internet completely destroyed their decency? Has their brain turned to mush? They have lost their empathy, become detached from reality, and their malignant narcissism dialed up to 11."

Takamaki Ann VA Erika Harrucker-Stone also said, "Erika Lindbeck is wonderful, kind, and has been through hell the last couple of years, and how dare you AI fans take to social media to bully her just because she told you not to steal her voice without consent! to bully her on social media because she told you not to steal her voice without her consent? You are terrible people. Have a bad day."

Voice actors Josh Keaton, Yuri Lowenthal, and Mike Pollock also defended Lindbeck. Lowenthal "agreed" with Keaton's statement that "Erica is a great person and doesn't deserve this," while Pollock Photoshopped a tweet from the suspended account and added: "Don't you think it's a little weird to put troublesome words in someone else's mouth? "

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This happened shortly after many voice actors realized that their voices were being cloned for NSFW deep-fake mods and condemned the use of AI. The National Voice Actors Association stated that "the damage done to voice actors and video game companies by AI and synthetic voices is real and tangible."