Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, urged people to check images before sharing them after AI-generated fabrications, including one depicting her in lingerie, spread online. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, she condemned their circulation as cyberbullying and warned that people without her resources could struggle to defend themselves.
Viral bedroom fabrication draws Meloni's response
Giorgia Meloni shared the fabricated image in her post. It showed her apparently wearing lingerie while seated on a bed, and had prompted condemnation from users who believed it was genuine. Originally reported by The Guardian.
"In recent days, several fake images of me have been circulating, generated using artificial intelligence and passed off as real by some overzealous opponents." Giorgia Meloni wrote the statement on Facebook.
"I must admit that whoever created them.. even improved my appearance quite a bit," Giorgia Meloni joked. "But the fact remains that, in order to attack and spread falsehoods, people are now willing to use absolutely anything."
The image drew this comment, attributed to an unidentified user: "That a prime minister should present herself in such a state is truly shameful. Unworthy of the institutional role she holds. She has no sense of shame."
The reaction illustrated the deception: criticism aimed at a supposed photograph was directed at an event that hadn't happened.
That confusion is central to the harm: an invented scene can generate real accusations, while the person shown must answer for material they didn't create and conduct they didn't engage in themselves.
A warning beyond Italy's prime minister
For Giorgia Meloni, the episode wasn't simply an attack on her reputation. She described AI-generated images as an increasingly dangerous means of misleading people and harming those depicted.
"The issue goes beyond me," Giorgia Meloni wrote. "Deepfakes are a dangerous tool, because they can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many others cannot. For this reason, one rule should always apply: verify before believing, and think before sharing. Because today it happens to me, tomorrow it could happen to anyone."
Her far-right government has made tackling the risks of AI and deepfakes a central part of its agenda. Last September, Italy became the first EU country to approve a comprehensive law regulating artificial intelligence, introducing prison terms for people who use the technology to cause harm, including through deepfakes.
The legislation also placed limits on children's access. Meloni's government said the law, aligned with the bloc's landmark EU AI Act, marked a decisive step in shaping how artificial intelligence was developed and used across Italy.
The response pairs a warning to users with penalties for harmful uses of the technology. But the viral image shows why legal safeguards don't replace scrutiny before material is shared.
Doctored images scandal prompted police action
The law followed a scandal involving a pornographic website that published doctored images of prominent Italian women, including Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein. The material triggered outrage in Italy.
Images taken from social media or public appearances were altered with vulgar, sexist captions and shared on a platform with more than 700,000 subscribers. Many depicted female politicians across party lines, with manipulations emphasising body parts or suggesting sexualised poses.
It wasn't confined to one party.
Italian police ordered the site to be shut down. Prosecutors in Rome opened an investigation into alleged offences including the unlawful dissemination of sexually explicit images, known as revenge porn, as well as defamation and extortion.
That case and the latest fabrication put two forms of abuse in focus: the sexualisation of women in public life and the use of altered images to pass off fiction as fact. Political differences offered no protection to the women targeted on the website.
For Meloni, sharing the lingerie image herself served to identify it as a fake. The public condemnation it had already attracted underscored her warning that fabricated material can mislead viewers before the person depicted has a chance to respond publicly.
The challenge now extends beyond removing any one image or closing a website. Italy has introduced criminal penalties for harmful AI use, but Meloni's appeal also puts responsibility on those circulating material: don't treat a convincing image as proof that something has actually happened.
Originally reported by The Guardian. View original.