50 members of the European Parliament, including 46 women, have been targeted by pornographic deepfakes. The use of generative artificial intelligence to create intimate images without consent has affected approximately one in six female MEPs in the EU.
50 members of the European Parliament, including 46 women, have been targeted by pornographic deepfakes. The use of generative artificial intelligence to create intimate images without consent has affected approximately one in six female MEPs in the EU.
This is stated in a new study by the German public organization Agora Digitale Transformation, the results of which are published by POLITICO.
In response to the growing problem, the European Union plans to completely ban AI-based apps that allow people to virtually “undress” (so-called nudifier apps). The ban will come into effect on December 2, 2026. In parallel, European regulators are investigating similar incidents related to the use of the Grok neural network , integrated into the social platform X.
At the end of September, a cross-party group of 119 MEPs sent an open letter to EU leaders, demanding the effective implementation of the upcoming ban and the swift conclusion of the investigation into the technologies on the X platform.
"There can be no loopholes or delays in the implementation of the ban," emphasized Austrian Green MP Lena Schilling.
Co-author of the study Benjamin Schultz noted that public figures and politicians cannot hide their faces from the Internet, so it is extremely difficult for them to avoid attacks using AI tools. According to him, to effectively enforce the ban, the European Commission should hold accountable all structures that even unintentionally support the industry of such applications, in particular payment operators and domain registrars. The researchers also suggest obliging search engines to remove such sites from their databases.
