Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Pursuing $108,200 Compensation in Deepfake Pornography Case

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is pursuing a case in court to claim $108,200 (€100,000) in damages after fake pornographic videos of her were shared on the internet. She is set to testify in a Sardinian court on July 2nd as part of the civil trial against two men. They are accused of creating videos where her face was edited onto bodies of adult film actors and posting them on a pornographic website based in the United States in 2020.

The two men, a 40-year-old and his 73-year-old father, are currently facing criminal defamation charges as well as a civil lawsuit from Meloni. The police were able to track down the men through their online accounts, which were used to upload pornographic videos and images.

During the time when the videos were shared online, Meloni, who is 47 years old, was running for the position of prime minister as the leader of the Brothers of Italy party. In 2022, she successfully won the position in a landslide victory.

According to the criminal complaint, the images were online for several months and were viewed by several million people. Some of these images are still being circulated online.

Meloni's lawyer, Maria Giulia Marongiu, informed CNN that any financial award Meloni receives will be donated to the Interior Ministry's fund for victims of domestic violence.

Marongiu told Italian press outlets that the prime minister was hoping to set an example for other victims of revenge porn and deepfake porn to speak out against those who defame them.

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