Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said she was the target of a political attack after a deepfake photo of her began circulating online, portraying her in lingerie and lying in bed. She denounced the image’s use as an attempt to undermine her and complained that artificial-intelligence-generated photos were being weaponized for deception.
Meloni shared the photo on her Facebook page, along with what she described as an apparent post from someone named Roberto, who appeared to have shared it with the comment that Meloni should be “ashamed” of herself. She used the post to urge caution among people who might be tempted to pass along similar material without checking its authenticity.
In her Facebook message, Meloni warned that the technology behind deepfakes makes them especially dangerous because of their ability to mislead viewers. She wrote that “Deepfakes are a dangerous tool because they can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many others cannot,” according to the Associated Press account of her remarks.
Meloni also said she had been urged by people commenting on the Facebook post to report the incident to law enforcement, but she did not make clear whether she would do so. She acknowledged that the manipulation “actually made me look a lot better,” while adding that the broader problem was what people can do with altered images to “attack and fabricate lies.”
The Associated Press report said Meloni’s deepfake comments came at a time when her public image has been a target of online manipulation before. It said that in February, a minor church-state controversy erupted after an image of a cherub with a likeness to Meloni appeared in a Roman church, and that she had then made light of the manipulation.
In that earlier instance, Meloni posted about the cherub online with a comment suggesting she did not look like an angel. The Associated Press report said she wrote, “No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” with a laughing/crying emoji, alongside a photo of the artwork.