MEP Schilling urges EU action against deepfakes — The Guardian

Austrian Green Party MEP Lena Schilling has called on the European Union to ensure the effective enforcement of a forthcoming ban on apps and websites that use artificial intelligence to digitally undress women. The politician said she learned that sexualized deepfakes featuring her image were being shared online.

As The Guardian reports, her clothing was digitally removed in images from one of Schilling’s first press conferences. The MEP described what she saw as disgusting and said the photos were used to harm and humiliate her.

Data on deepfakes targeting women MEPs

According to the Berlin-based think tank Agora Digitale Transformation, 50 members of the European Parliament were targeted by sexualized deepfakes, 46 of whom were women. The report also states that one in six women MEPs has been affected by such content.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

An earlier ADT report identified 138 women parliamentarians from 22 EU countries affected by this problem. The organization concluded that women were 33 times more likely than men to be targets of or associated with deepfake pornography.

Call to ensure enforcement of the ban

Schilling called such images a form of digital violence against women, adding to the sexist insults, harassment and violence faced by women in politics. According to her, some other affected women MEPs were afraid to speak publicly about it.

Schilling and German Green MEP Terry Reintke initiated a letter to the EU, signed by 119 MEPs. It called on officials to combine the ban on services that digitally undress women, which is due to take effect in the EU on December 2, with mechanisms for its actual enforcement. The letter’s authors stressed that a ban without monitoring compliance would not protect those affected.