Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Demands €100,000 Compensation in Court Over Deepfake Porn to Donate to Women's Support

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is demanding €100,000 in damages after fake pornographic videos of her appeared online, BBC writes.

Deepfake images are images where the face of one person is digitally added to the body of another.

Meloni's lawyers have stated that if her claim for damages is granted, she will donate €100,000 to a fund to support women who are victims of violence by men.

Maria Giulia Marongiu, Ms Meloni's lawyer, said the amount was "symbolic" and that the compensation claim was intended to "send a message to women who have been victims of this kind of abuse of power so that they are not afraid to press charges".

The fake videos of Ms Maloney appeared before she was appointed Prime Minister in 2022.

Meloni is now due to testify in court in the Sardinian city of Sassari on 2 July.

The 40-year-old man who is believed to have created the videos and his 73-year-old father are under investigation in the case.

Police said they were able to locate them by tracking a mobile device used to post the fake video.

Both men face defamation charges. Under Italian law, some cases of defamation can be criminalised and carry a prison sentence.

According to the indictment, the videos were posted on a US pornography website, where they were viewed "millions of times" over several months.

In recent years, fake porn has become a widespread phenomenon on the Internet.

Victims of such publications have spoken of the trauma of having their faces digitally edited into photographs of women in sexually explicit scenes.