The Silicon Shadows of Power: How AI-Generated Deepfake Pornography is Targeting European Women Politicians

By Global Investigative Desk
Published: October 2024

Main Facts

Nearly 150 high-ranking politicians across Europe have been systematically targeted and integrated into harmful, non-consensual deepfake pornography websites over the past few years. According to landmark research seen exclusively by technology publication WIRED and published by the German digital democracy think tank Agora Digitale Transformation, this digital harassment campaign exhibits a profound gender-based asymmetry.

The findings reveal that at least 138 women members of parliament (MPs) hailing from 22 European Union member states have had their likenesses, names, or official photographs weaponized on roughly 160 domains specializing in deepfake abuse and non-consensual sexual content (NCSC). In sharp contrast, only nine male MPs were referenced across these malicious platforms. The data indicates that a woman holding parliamentary office in Europe is roughly 33 times more likely to be targeted by this thriving deepfake ecosystem than her male counterparts.

The research, spearheaded by Benjamin Shultz—a researcher at the American Sunlight Project and a fellow at Agora—pulls back the curtain on an industrial-scale threat targeting the highest echelons of European governance. The targeted individuals include prominent lawmakers from major EU nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France.

Rather than isolated incidents of pranksters or political trolls, the investigation unveils a coordinated, business-driven digital infrastructure. These websites do not merely host explicit deepfake videos; many function as toxic databases containing official parliamentary photographs, biographies, social media links, and degrading "rating" systems. Crucially, these profiles often feature direct hyperlinks to external "nudifier" applications or native AI-generation tools capable of digitally stripping clothing from photographs in a matter of clicks.

Chronology

To understand how deepfake technology evolved from a niche computer science experiment into a systemic threat against public officials, one must trace its rapid trajectory over the past decade:

• Late 2017: The term "deepfake" enters the public lexicon when a Reddit user anonymously publishes artificially generated explicit videos swapping the faces of Hollywood celebrities, such as Gal Gadot, onto the bodies of adult film actors.
• 2018–2020: The underlying generative adversarial network (GAN) technology democratizes. Open-source code repositories make it remarkably easy for amateur programmers and bad actors to train models on publicly available images, moving the technology from Hollywood-budget visual effects suites to consumer-grade personal computers. Experts like Henry Ajder begin tracking the monetization and commercialization of non-consensual AI pornography.
• July 2024: Researcher Benjamin Shultz compiles a comprehensive baseline dataset of more than 5,800 national members of parliament across all 27 European Union countries, omitting members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to focus strictly on national legislatures.
• Mid-to-Late 2024: Utilizing custom search algorithms designed to scour the dark corners and fringe domains of the internet, Shultz maps approximately 160 active and indexed domains hosting deepfake abuse. He discovers the systematic inclusion of nearly 150 European politicians, subsequently alerting the impacted MPs individually and providing remediation guidance.
• October 2024: Agora Digitale Transformation publishes the findings in a definitive report titled "Who Gets Deepfaked?", thrusting the intersection of artificial intelligence, gender-based violence, and democratic security into the heart of European political discourse.

Supporting Data

The empirical data compiled by Shultz and published by Agora Digitale Transformation offers a sobering quantitative look at the gendered weaponization of generative AI. Key metrics from the investigation include:

• The Gender Gap: Out of nearly 150 politicians identified, 138 are women and only 9 are men. Women MPs face a staggering 33x multiplier in vulnerability compared to their male colleagues.
• Geographic Spread: The targeted female politicians represent 22 of the 27 European Union member states, demonstrating that this is a continent-wide crisis rather than an isolated domestic issue.
• Hotspot Nations: Lawmakers hailing from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France appeared most frequently across the monitored websites, correlating broadly with large political apparatuses and highly visible female leadership in those nations.
• Scope of the Infrastructure: The research analyzed roughly 160 distinct internet domains dedicated to deepfake abuse, non-consensual sexual content, and automated "nudification" services.
• Hierarchy of Target Selection: The investigation reveals a disturbing upward trend: the more senior a politician is, the more likely they are to be targeted. High-profile female leaders possessing greater public visibility and media presence are preferentially selected by malicious actors.
• The "Three-Click" Threat: The analysis categorizes abusive content not just as hosted videos, but as indexed remnants and "gateways." Profiles frequently combine official state biographies, social media handles, body-rating metrics, and instant access to AI tools that can generate exploitative imagery in three simple clicks.

Official Responses

The revelations have sparked intense outrage, sorrow, and demands for immediate regulatory and legislative action from lawmakers who found themselves in the crosshairs of this digital onslaught.

Suzanne Kröger, a Dutch member of parliament representing the Progressive Netherlands group who was directly impacted by the findings, expressed deep distress upon learning her likeness was integrated into these digital ecosystems.

"Deepfake porn is part of a much bigger trend of online hate and intimidation against women and female politicians," Kröger stated. Characterizing the research findings as "really deeply disturbing," she emphasized the vast contrast between the platform politicians hold and the broader societal crisis facing everyday women. "We are politicians, we have a platform and speak out. But meanwhile, there are millions of women victims of these criminal acts."

Sarah Dobbe, a Dutch Socialist Party MP who was similarly targeted, highlighted the psychological dimensions of the abuse, noting its dual function as an instrument of political intimidation and systemic misogyny.

"Deepfake videos are used to intimidate politicians but also to belittle women," Dobbe noted. Stressing the urgent need for institutional safety nets, she added: "It is very important that if a woman or girl is victimized in this way, she can get direct support if needed, and that the content is removed quickly."

Independent AI safety experts and researchers have echoed these concerns, emphasizing that the problem lies not in isolated malicious actors, but in a purposefully designed commercial enterprise. Henry Ajder, a veteran deepfake researcher and AI advisor who has tracked the ecosystem since its inception, observed that these illegal platforms operate with corporate efficiency.

"These platforms are designed to run like businesses," Ajder explained. "The whole infrastructure is set up to do this at scale with ease. While it’s not surprising that politicians are being targeted, these findings provide crucial empirical evidence for European officials to finally grasp the systemic severity of the issue."

Researcher Benjamin Shultz, who personally contacted every affected parliamentarian, underscored that the threat extends far beyond the digital realm, functioning as an active deterrent against civic participation.

Implications

The widespread targeting of female European politicians using advanced AI generation tools carries profound implications for the future of democracy, gender equality, and the integrity of public service.

1. The Chilling Effect on Female Political Participation

Demographic representation in governance remains a fragile achievement across Europe. Researchers and lawmakers warn that the proliferation of non-consensual sexual content targeting female MPs creates a severe chilling effect. By weaponizing sexuality to humiliate and intimidate female leaders, bad actors erect psychological and reputational barriers designed to deter women and girls from entering public life.

As Shultz noted, "This discourages women from taking office in the first place and also crowds these women out of public life. There’s so much evidence to support that this does real psychological damage. This also does reputational damage for the future if they want to fade out of politics and have another career."

2. Normalization and Scale of Non-Consensual AI Abuse

While public figures command headlines, the ecosystem sustaining these deepfake websites is built to scale abuse for anyone. Millions of non-consensual AI images and videos have been generated globally, trickling down to affect teenage girls in schools across the world—a crisis documented across nearly 100 educational institutions globally. The ease with which an official state portrait can be transformed into explicit material using commercialized "nudify" apps highlights a complete failure of current technological safeguards.

3. Regulatory and Legal Challenges for the European Union

The findings arrive as the European Union attempts to enforce landmark regulations such as the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). While the EU has taken a globally leading stance on reining in big tech and mandating the watermarking or banning of manipulative AI media, the decentralized, fly-by-night nature of these deepfake domains presents an ongoing enforcement nightmare.

Hosting providers, payment processors, and app stores that inadvertently or knowingly facilitate these commercial operations face mounting pressure from civil society and lawmakers to cut off the financial lifelines supporting the deepfake economy.

Ultimately, the revelation that nearly 150 European politicians have been caught in the crosshairs of AI-driven harassment serves as a stark warning. As generative artificial intelligence continues to advance in realism and accessibility, safeguarding the digital autonomy and physical safety of public servants—and women at large—has become an urgent test of democratic resilience in the twenty-first century.