Researchers have found that almost 150 politicians across Europe have been included on harmful deepfake pornography websites over the last few years.
According to new analysis by researcher Benjamin Shultz, at least 138 women members of parliament (MPs) from 22 European Union countries have appeared or been mentioned on the sites. In contrast, only nine male MPs were referenced in any way.
By Shultz’s calculations, it is 33 times more likely for women MPs to be targeted by deepfake ecosystems.
"Deepfake porn is part of a much bigger trend of online hate and intimidation against women and female politicians," says Suzanne Kröger, a Dutch member of parliament with the Progressive Netherlands group, who was impacted.
Kröger, who expressed anger at what the research uncovered, says the findings are "really deeply disturbing" and help to reveal the scale of abuse. "We are politicians, we have a platform and speak out," Kröger says.
"But meanwhile, there are millions of women victims of these criminal acts."
The research, which has been published by German digital democracy think tank Agora Digitale Transformation, focuses on national members of parliament from all 27 countries in the European Union.
Shultz, a fellow at Agora and the lead researcher at the American Sunlight Project, compiled the details of more than 5,800 members of parliaments across Europe in July and then used custom search engines to find where they appeared across the deepfake websites. (The research does not include members of the European Parliament).
Politicians from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France appeared on the websites the most, according to the findings, and the more senior a politician is, the more likely they were to be targeted.
Shultz alerted all of the MPs individually and provided guidance on how the content may be removed. The websites also include depictions of celebrities, journalists, and other public figures, he says.
WIRED is not naming the websites in order to not drive further attention to the abusive images.
Multiple researchers and lawmakers say that while politicians have been targeted with deepfakes for years, it can damage democratic practices and create chilling effects that may stop women and girls from becoming public figures.
"This discourages women from taking office in the first place and also crowds these women out of public life," Shultz says. "There’s so much evidence to support that this does real psychological damage.
This also does reputational damage for the future if they want to fade out of politics and have another career."
"Deepfake videos are used to intimidate politicians but also to belittle women," says Sarah Dobbe, a Dutch Socialist Party MP, who was impacted. "It is very important that if a woman or girl is victimized in this way, she can get direct support if needed, and that the content is removed quickly."
Source: wired
