Italian PM Meloni Seeks $93,365 in Damages Over Deepfake Porn Videos
If successful in her claim for damages, Meloni has pledged to donate the sum to a fund supporting women who have experienced male violence.
Rome: The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is taking legal action seeking €100,000 ($93,365) (Rs 90,83,900) in damages after deepfake pornographic videos featuring her surfaced online.
The Prime Minister is due to testify in the Sardinian city of Sassari on July 2, to pursue justice against those responsible for creating and disseminating these manipulated videos.
The perpetrators, a 40-year-old man believed to have produced the videos and his 73-year-old father, are currently under investigation by the authorities. The police were able to trace them through the mobile device used to upload the illicit videos.
The two accused face charges of defamation, with some defamation cases in Italy carrying criminal penalties, potentially leading to imprisonment.
If successful in her claim for damages, Meloni has pledged to donate the sum to a fund supporting women who have experienced male violence. Meloni's attorney, Maria Giulia Marongiu, emphasised the symbolic nature of the compensation demand, aiming to encourage victims of such abuse to come forward without fear and seek justice.
According to the indictment, these videos were reportedly uploaded on a US-based pornographic website and garnered millions of views over several months.
Notably, the deepfake videos featuring the Italian Prime Minister date back to the time before she assumed office in 2022. This incident underscores the prevalence of deep fake pornographic content on the internet in the last few years, with victims expressing the distress caused by seeing their faces digitally manipulated onto explicit images without their consent.
A deep fake video digitally superimposes one person's face onto another's body and is used to create pornographic content involving PM Meloni.
Published By : Tanisha Rajput
Published On: 21 March 2024 at 08:10 IST