Sexual deepfakes are being used to intimidate women in politics, journalism and activism, as artificial intelligence tools turn fabricated explicit images into a cheap and easy weapon of online abuse. European Union lawmakers have now agreed to ban AI services that can “undress” people without consent, after a rise in cases targeting women in public life.
While victims include anonymous women and girls, those with a public profile are particularly exposed to the danger of deepfakes. Campaigners and experts say the images are designed not only to humiliate them, but to push them out of public debate.
The attacks against Slovenian activist Nika Kovac began when she was at the centre of a major abortion rights campaign. The 33-year-old runs My Voice, My Choice, a European citizens’ initiative pushing for EU support to access abortion.
The campaign gained momentum, pushing the European Parliament and then the European Commission to take a position on the issue. That was when AI-generated sexual videos and photos showing Kovac naked begin appearing on social media, she tells RFI.
“First I thought, what will happen if my mother or father see them, if my grandparents see them?” Kovac said.
Some of her relatives initially thought one of the videos was real.
For Kovac, the founder of Slovenian women's rights NGO the 8 March Institute, the message behind the attacks was clear.
“I think it was a form of intimidation, meant to make me uncomfortable and stop me continuing to speak about women’s rights. This kind of content is another way of silencing women,” she says.
Emerging pattern
The case reflects a wider trend linked to sexual deepfakes – fabricated explicit images or videos created using someone’s likeness without their consent.
French journalist Salomé Saqué says she too was targeted by pornographic deepfakes, describing them as a weapon used by those trying to “gag, denigrate and humiliate” her – the latest on a “very long list of online violence” she has faced.
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has also warned about the growing threat deepfakes pose to journalists, especially women.
It cited Argentine journalist Julia Mengolini, founder of radio station Futurock FM and a frequent target of Argentina’s far right. Mengolini has condemned a pornographic deepfake falsely portraying her in an incestuous relationship with her brother in order to discredit her.
She also filed a complaint against Argentina's President Javier Milei after he shared a post mocking her attempts to stop the harassment campaign.
Cases have also emerged in Italy, where scandal surrounding the pornography website Phica exposed the circulation of stolen, altered or sexualised images of famous women, including Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein.
A fresh attack targeted Meloni earlier this month, with fake images showing her wearing underwear on a bed.
In Germany, the case involving actress and television presenter Collien Fernandes reignited the debate over whether creating such content should itself be a criminal offence. Her lawyer described it as “the digital Pelicot affair” – referring to the case of Frenchwoman Gisèle Pelicot, who was repeatedly drugged and raped by her husband, and by men he invited via the internet to do the same.
For years, fake sexual images of Fernandes were made to look like private material shared via social media accounts using her name. She later discovered the suspected perpetrator was her former husband.
Humiliation and fear
The Hubertine Auclert Centre, a French gender equality organisation, said sexual deepfakes are part of a wider pattern of sexist and sexual online violence rooted in gender domination.
“Overwhelmingly, victims are women, including minors,” says Inès Girard, who helped write the organisation's briefing on the issue.
Available figures support that assessment. Research published in 2023 by online identity protection company Security Hero found that 98 percent of deepfakes online were pornographic and 99 percent of those targeted were women.
A report published by UN Women in late April found that among more than 600 women involved in public life, 6 percent said they had been victims of deepfakes.
Another 12 percent reported non-consensual sharing of personal images, including intimate or sexual content, while 41 percent said they self-censored on social media to avoid abuse.
Fake sexual images can be used to humiliate women, blackmail them or pressure them to stop defending their causes, Girard says.
Posted online, they can also “discredit the person” and “shift the focus” away from their work or activism on to degrading sexualised images.
The use of sexual deepfakes, Kovac warns, goes beyond ordinary online insults or threats.
“It is a very particular way of taking ownership of your body. Placing you in sexual situations without consent, stripping you naked and using your body in this way shows that you are an object, and that you do not matter,” she says. "It goes further than threats or nasty comments.”
The experience, Kovac adds, amounts to a form of “psychological torture”.
The Hubertine Auclert Centre points to a range of consequences – including feelings of dehumanisation, shame, psychological trauma, damage to social, professional and personal lives, and fear that images will keep circulating even after some posts are removed.
The centre adds that 45 percent of victims of sexual cyberviolence experience suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts.
“I am an adult woman with quite a stable life. But these things also happen to girls aged 12, 13 or 14,” Kovac warns, adding that attacks also drain time and resources from activist groups.
“We have to find the content, report it and mobilise a whole team. It’s also a way of taking away our ability to work and stopping us from doing our real work.”
Despite the abuse, Kovac refused to withdraw from social media during a crucial moment for her three-year campaign.
“It gave me even more motivation, even if sometimes we cry and feel deeply sad."
The political consequences can also be grave.
Northern Irish politician Cara Hunter told The Guardian newspaper that a pornographic deepfake released before an election nearly ended her career. Her party advised her to stay silent to avoid giving the case more attention, demonstrating the dilemma imposed on victims.
Silenced voices
The aim of this abuse is to drive women out of public life, says Paris lawyer Rachel-Flore Pardo, who specialises in cyberharassment and gender-based and sexual violence.
“The whole dynamic of sexist and sexual cyberviolence is about silencing women and pushing them to exclude themselves from public space and public engagement,” Pardo says.
“The consequences are self-censorship, withdrawal and fear, which leads women to stay silent and retreat.”
This silencing effect is especially visible online, where social media spaces are already heavily dominated by men, Girard says. “The voices [women] carry end up smothered.”
The phenomenon is not new, with the term “deepfake” first appearing on Reddit in 2017, when fake pornographic videos featuring celebrities were already circulating.
However, the Taylor Swift case in January 2024, when AI-generated pornographic images of the singer spread rapidly online, marked a turning point in wider public awareness of the issue.
Professional photos, profile pictures or screenshots are now enough to create fake sexual images. Dozens of websites and apps can “nudify” people within a few clicks, without the need for any technical skill from the user.
The European Parliament said in a 2025 report that the number of pornographic deepfakes shared online has increased 16-fold in two years.
The Grok scandal further intensified debate. The AI assistant integrated into X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk’s social media platform, was accused of allowing mass generation of sexualised images of women and minors from real photographs.
The case caused international outrage and led to a European investigation. It also showed how easily such images can now be produced in seconds, from a single photo.
Legal catch-up
The United Nations says fewer than half of countries have laws dealing with online abuse. Even fewer specifically address AI-generated deepfake content.
France introduced legislation in 2024 through a law on securing and regulating the digital space, known as SREN. It punishes the distribution of sexual content generated using someone’s image or voice without their consent.
Penalties can be up to two years in prison and a fine of €60,000. This rises to three years and €75,000 when the content is shared online.
The law also paves the way for the prosecution of people who share sexual deepfakes, even if they did not create them.
“The law is there," Pardo says. "The question is how it is applied and what resources are available for investigations.”
Victims still face major obstacles, including identifying perpetrators, gathering evidence, filing complaints, getting responses from platforms and obtaining full removal of content.
“Even if you manage to remove it from one site, it may still exist elsewhere. It is very hard, and you constantly live with fear that the content will be shared again,” Pardo says.
There are no publicly available statistics showing how complaints over sexual deepfakes are handled in France. A case can be closed without prosecution when the person who shared the content cannot be identified.
The Hubertine Auclert Centre also points to a lack of training and resources among police investigators. “Platforms do not react quickly enough, and they do not devote enough resources to all this,” Pardo says.
Meanwhile Kovac criticises what she calls a “double standard” on social media platforms, saying reproductive rights content shared by My Voice, My Choice can be censored while non-consensual sexual images remain online.
EU member states have until 14 June, 2027 to introduce rules criminalising non-consensual sharing of intimate images, including deepfakes, as well as creation or manipulation of sexually explicit material without consent.
Earlier this month the European Parliament agreed to ban AI services that can “undress” people without consent. From December, AI systems operating in the EU will have to include safeguards preventing the creation of such content.
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Aurore Lartigue.
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