Images taken from a press conference

Lena Schilling, an Austrian MEP with the Green party, has described being "stripped naked" online without her consent, and has urged the EU to take action. She learned last month that nude deepfakes of her were circulating online; the altered images were based on one of her first press conferences.

"I felt disgusted," she said. Seeing an image she had prepared for a press conference used in a way aimed at harming and humiliating her was, she said, really hard to grasp.

"We were stripped naked without our consent. This cannot become the new normal," Schilling said.

A systemic threat to women in politics

Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by the Berlin-based thinktank Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT). ADT described deepfake pornography as a systemic threat to women in European politics.

Earlier research by the thinktank found:

• •138 female parliamentarians from 22 EU countries had been affected
• •women were 33 times more likely than their male colleagues to be depicted in or associated with deepfake pornography
• •one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content

Schilling framed the images as a form of "digital violence against women", stacked on top of the disproportionate sexist abuse women in politics already face.

"These things make going into politics even harder than it is already. Just imagine what would happen to our society if more and more women disappear from public life," she said.

Fears of coming forward

Schilling said she had spoken to other female MEPs who had been targeted, but that they feared coming forward.

"But there's nothing to be ashamed of. People misused your photos, you did nothing wrong," she said.

The push to enforce the EU ban

Schilling and the German Green MEP Terry Reintke initiated a letter to the EU signed by 119 MEPs. It calls for the forthcoming ban on apps and websites that use AI to undress women, scheduled to take effect across the EU on 2 December, to be paired with enforcement mechanisms.

"A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced," the letter stated. The letter pointed to the widespread use of "nudifier" apps, in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click. "Every young woman considering a political career now must factor in that this could happen to her," it said.

Schilling said the aim was to push national authorities to close loopholes or workarounds that would allow the apps to continue to function in the EU. She said she spoke up hoping to convince member states to crack down on tech companies for which this sort of digital violence could be a viable business model.

"It's quite simple. Every woman who wants to run for office should be able to do so without being afraid of being undressed against her will," she said.

The ban on AI undressing apps takes effect across the EU on 2 December; the letter from Schilling and Reintke urges member states to close loopholes and enforce it against tech companies.