Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni seeking damages of $108,200 in deepfake porn trial

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is pursuing a civil trial seeking damages of $108,200 (€100,000) after pornographic deepfake videos featuring her were uploaded online.

Meloni is scheduled to testify in a Sardinian court on July 2 in her civil case against two individuals accused of superimposing her face onto adult film stars’ bodies and sharing the videos on a US-based pornographic website in 2020.

The defendants, a 40-year-old and his 73-year-old father, remain unnamed in public. They also face criminal defamation charges alongside Meloni’s civil lawsuit. Law enforcement identified the perpetrators through their cellphones, which were used to create and upload multiple pornographic videos and images.

During the time of the video uploads, Meloni, then 47, was campaigning to become prime minister as the leader of the Brothers of Italy party. She achieved this position in 2022 following a significant electoral victory.

The explicit content remained online for several months and garnered millions of views, as stated in the criminal complaint, with some materials still in circulation.

Meloni’s attorney, Maria Giulia Marongiu, said that any financial compensation received would be donated to the Interior Ministry’s fund for victims of domestic violence.

Marongiu emphasized that Meloni aims to set a precedent by standing up against revenge porn and deepfake content, encouraging other victims to speak out against defamatory action