Women EU lawmakers targeted by explicit AI deepfakes on hundreds of abuse sites

A study of roughly 160 websites that circulate non-consensual sexual AI material uncovered that at least 138 women members of parliament across 22 European Union nations have been featured, compared with only nine male MPs. Conducted by researcher Benjamin Shultz, a fellow at Agora Digitale Transformation and lead of the American Sunlight Project, the analysis compiled data on more than 5,800 European parliamentarians and used custom search engines to locate their presence on deep-fake platforms.

The most affected countries were Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and France, and senior politicians were disproportionately targeted. The sites not only host explicit videos but also provide “nudifier” tools and rating sections that facilitate further abuse. Victims such as Suzanne Kröger and Sarah Dobbe described the exposure as deeply disturbing and called for rapid removal and support. Following the report, several domains have been removed, reducing the number of depictions, and lawmakers in the UK and EU are considering bans on such services.