What happened

Patrizia Schlosser discovered approximately 30 degrading sexualised images of herself on MrDeepFakes, a notorious deepfake pornographic website known for hosting a vast array of similar content.

Despite knowing the images were fabricated, Schlosser says she expressed deep feelings of shock and shame upon discovering the images and decided to confront the situation by attempting to track down the individual responsible for uploading them. 

Working in conjunction with investigative non-profit Bellingcat and German YouTube channel STRG_F, Schlosser found MrDeepFakes hosts tens of thousands of AI videos and images, has close to 650,000 members and its content has been viewed almost two billion times. 

It also revealed that the site's administrators use cryptocurrency and PayPal to process payments in an attempt to stay out of the spotlight, perhaps as they appear to be linked to Shenzhen Xinguodu Technology (aka "Nexgo"), a Chinese fintech company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Why it happened

The incident appears to be linked to Schlosser's investigative work on issues surrounding sexualised violence against women and reflects a broader trend in which women, particularly those in public roles or who report on sensitive topics, are subjected to deepfake attacks. 

The AI technology used allows anyone's likeness to be manipulated into explicit content using a single image, making it easy for anyone to concoct extremely unpleasant and damaging content in seconds.