Associated Incidents
Giorgia Meloni said she was "protecting women" when she gave evidence on Tuesday at the defamation trial of a man accused of creating a deepfake porn video starring her.
The Italian prime minister appeared on a videolink from her office in Rome at the trial in Sardinia of Alessio Scurosu, 40, who allegedly posted photos and video in which he superimposed the face of Meloni on to the body of a pornographic actress.
Meloni, 47, took the man to court for defamation as well as demanding €100,000 in damages, which she has said that if she wins she will donate to a state fund assisting women who are victims of violence.
"I insist on asking that the person responsible for this intolerable and very serious act is punished," Meloni told the court.
"I work every day to combat violence against women and have a responsibility. This was a form of violence against me and I don't want to let it go because otherwise it sends a message that anyone can do the same thing to other women," she added.
Maurizio Serra, a lawyer representing Scurosu, said: "Meloni told the court, 'I reacted like this to protect women'."
Answering questions from the prosecutor, Meloni said her secretary had first become aware of the video in 2020, two years before she was elected prime minister.
From the nickname he used online, police were able to trace the video to Scurosu, who was charged alongside his 73-year-old father, who has avoided trial by agreeing to carry out four months of community service working with the blind.
"He is not well and did not want to undergo a trial," said Serra.
His son, however, chose to stand trial and risks a defamation sentence, which could lead to up to three years in jail and a €516 fine under Italian law.
Serra defended his client, telling The Times, "I do not believe what he did is a crime. All public figures run this risk."
When he made the same point in court, Meloni responded: "Thank you for letting me know that. It gives us encouragement to reconsider the sentences for these crimes. There is also the fact that artificial intelligence will make it impossible to understand what is true and what is not. You need to start from the responsibility of the individual."
The top five deepfake pornographic websites on the internet feature 4,000 famous people, including more than 250 British celebrities, whose features have been superimposed in videos, Channel 4 News reported in March.
The sites had received 100 million views over the course of three months, the programme said.
Among the victims was the Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, who said: "It feels like a violation. It just feels really sinister that someone out there who's put this together, I can't see them, and they can see this kind of imaginary version of me, this fake version of me."
This year, AI-generated sexually explicit images of the singer Taylor Swift were posted on the social media platform X, with one image viewed 45 million times before it was taken down.
Last month police in South Korea said they were investigating the messaging app Telegram on suspicion of showing deepfake pornographic images using the faces of thousands of women.
In January this year the UK passed the Online Safety Act, which criminalises the sharing of deepfake porn.
Meloni's defamation case was adjourned until February when Scurosu could be cross-examined, said Serra.
The case is one of a number of defamation lawsuits the prime minister has brought.
This year she won €5,000 in damages from a journalist who mocked her height and also successfully sued the writer Roberto Saviano after he called her a "bastard". On Monday, however, she dropped a case against a retired university professor who had called her a "neo-Nazi at heart".