Italian Prime Minister to Testify in Court Over Deepfake Porn Video
The Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni is set to testify in court in a civil case she has brought against two men she alleges made a deepfake pornographic video of her.
Meloni is seeking damages of $108,200 (€100,000) after a 40-year-old man and his 73-year-old father, who have not been named, allegedly uploaded a deepfake video to a U.S.-based porn site in which the prime minister’s face was superimposed onto the body of an adult film star.
The two men were tracked via their cellphones, the devices they allegedly used to make the nonconsensual video and subsequently posted in 2020 while Meloni was campaigning to be prime minister. Meloni won the election in 2022 as head of her Brothers of Italy party in a landslide victory.
According to a report from CNN, the video was online for months and racked up several million views. Some of the images are still online.
Meloni’s lawyer, Maria Giulia Marongiu, says the prime minister wants to set an example for other victims of deepfake porn and will donate any financial award to the Interior Ministry’s domestic violence victims’ fund.
Georgia State Representative Makes Deepfake Video of His Colleague
This week, Georgia representative Brad Thomas made a deepfake video of his colleague, Senator Colton Moore, to support Thomas’ bill outlawing the use of artificial intelligence deepfakes in political communication.
Moore is a vocal opponent of the bill, so to prove a point, Thomas made the deepfake video of Moore in which an AI version of the politician spoke out in favor of the bill.
4,000 Celebrities Found to be Victims of Deepfake Pornography
In an investigation by U.K. television station Channel 4, 4,000 deepfake porn videos of celebrities were found online.
They include female actors, TV stars, musicians, and YouTubers, who have not been named, whose faces were superimposed onto pornographic material using generative AI.
A Channel 4 News presenter, Cathy Newman, was found to be among the victims.
“It feels like a violation. It just feels really sinister that someone out there who’s put this together, I can’t see them, and they can see this kind of imaginary version of me, this fake version of me.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
