Fact check: Female politicians as a target for sexualized deepfake content | DW News

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]AI deep fakes are spreading fast. Online sexual exploitation is increasing.

[00:00:07]>> Deep fakes are life ruining, career ruining, relationship ruining. Um, and you know, they're impacting our democracy at a rising rate.

[00:00:15]>> I was depressed. I was shattered when you know it came into my knowledge.

[00:00:21]>> Female politicians are increasingly being targeted with sexualized AI generated content. Basically, their faces are copy-pasted into pornography or I generated sexualized images or videos and science shows violence against women online discourages women from taking part in political life. In early May, Georgia Maloney, Prime Minister of Italy, made her case public.

[00:00:41]This sexualized fake image of her went viral. But it's AI and she's not the only female politician targeted. Kamala Harris, Claudia Shaneb, Usola Fondela and Asma Bukari. We found sexualized deep takes and sexualized AI images of these leaders and many many more worldwide on porn websites but also on platforms such as Facebook and X. This is abusive content that is made without women's consent and many victims I've spoken to do not like that term deep fake pornography because it minimizes the harmful nature of the material. It is especially harmful not only for these individuals but also for democracy itself because the dissemination of these kinds of pictures is meant to degrade them and also to delegitimize their political standing.

[00:01:35]>> Women are underrepresented in politics worldwide. The most powerful politicians in the world have almost always been men. As social media becomes more and more vital for politicians, hate speech against public figures is also increasing. Both male and female politicians face hate speech online, but women are disproportionately bombarded with sexist or sexualized comments. A study from 2024 shows 35,545 pieces of sexualized deep fake content featuring 26 members of the US Congress.

[00:02:02]All but one were female. There was no significant association between a political party and sexualized deep fake content. Though sexualized deep fakes may be a systemic problem, but women who are targeted suffer individually as well. Cara Hunter, member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland, remembers the moment when she first found out about fake sexualized content of herself online. I just remember I felt like a a hot rush of heat sort of go through my body just of complete, you know, fear and anxiety of what was to come next. I was stopped on the street and asked for a sexual favor from a stranger, a strange man I'd never met. Um, and that shows you the extent of how online harms become real life harms.

[00:02:39]>> In Pakistan, sexualized AI content can be especially damaging for women. It's usually character assassination and sexualized innuendos, images, and videos um that are produced to target her. And obviously that feeds into a whole misogynist culture, culture of impunity.

[00:02:56]>> One example, in 2024, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukari said she was targeted through a sexually explicit deep fake. She later spoke publicly about how distressing it was. We also found other examples involving Punjab Chief Minister Mariam Navas. One manipulated image falsely showed her hugging a male political leader. Her name and likeness were also used on an AI platform where chatbot persona included explicit sexualized descriptions and tags. These are not all deep fakes in the strict technical sense, but they point to the same problem. AI tools are being used to sexualize female politicians, damage their reputations, and intimidate them away from public life. A huge problem.

[00:03:31]Most of the countries worldwide lack strong legislation when it comes to sexualized deep fakes. Most revenge porn or image-based abuse laws were created before deep fakes existed.

[00:03:40]>> A few years ago, it was very hard and only experts could create them. And today, you can buy the software online for a few dollars. Um, and then uh anybody can use it. You don't need any machine learning knowledge to do it.

[00:03:53]>> And the laws, if there are any, differ from country to country and region to region. Let's have a look at three jurisdictions. the EU, Pakistan, and the US. The European Union is planning a stricter policy when it comes to deep fakes. In May 2026, they agreed to prohibit AI applications to create unauthorized sexually explicit deep fakes as well as the creation of child sexual abuse. Companies will have until December 2nd this year to bring the systems in line. The policy is moving forward, but hasn't been approved yet.

[00:04:21]Pakistan still does not have a law that specifically deals with AI or sexualized deep fakes. We have the prevention of electronic crimes act 2016 which makes it an offense to superimpose photographs of anybody and intentionally and publicly exhibit or display any information which goes against their modesty. We also have section 499 of the Pakistan Penal Code which makes it an offense to defame someone. And what about the US? There it's illegal to share online non-consensual explicit images real or AI generated or manipulated. And the Take It Down Act requires platform removal within 48 hours after someone flags the abuse. But in all three places, the EU, Pakistan, and the US, one challenge remains. A real problem with sexual deep fakes is finding out who has produced or shared these images without your consent because often these people are anonymous. And the platforms, particularly a platform like X is very reluctant to ever give any information to law enforcement to be able to take prosecutions against that person. So sexualized defects can seriously do harm, especially against women and female politicians. If you see this type of content online, you can report it.

[00:05:32]And when it comes to what social media platforms can do to come up with more robust mechanisms to protect individuals is number one they should uh follow the US's take it down act policy worldwide.

[00:05:43]Sexualized defects are not just online harassment. For women in politics they have become a tool for humiliation, intimidation and silencing. And for the women targeted the impact often continues long after the images are removed.