Dame Penny Mordaunt said her face was used in an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) – which she described as ‘deliberately humiliating and violent’
Former Tory Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt has described being the victim of deepfake porn.
Dame Penny said her face was used in an image generated by artificial intelligence (AI) – which she described as “deliberately humiliating and violent”.
The ex-Defence Secretary and former Commons leader, who lost her seat at last year’s general election, said it had happened to a number of parliamentarians.
Deepfakes usually involve photos of a person being digitally altered using AI to create a nude image or video without an individual’s consent.
Dame Penny told BBC Newsnight: “My face had been used, AI porn generated, deep fake porn. I would ask the people behind this, you know, don’t they realise the consequences in the real world when they do something like that.
“Although I haven’t seen this myself, it was deliberately humiliating and violent and that plays across into the real world, it plays across in to people taking actual real world actions against ourselves and that has happened to me.”
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She said: “It’s happened to a lot of my colleagues and I do think, I mean the worry for me is actually more with children and we wouldn’t want people to see these things on the walk to school. If they did, they’d be in therapy.”
But the former Tory MP, who is seeking a return to Parliament, said “upsides of the job far outweigh the downsides of being in the public eye”.
Dame Penny was made aware she was a victim of deepfake porn last July by Channel 4 News alongside other high-profile female politicians including Angela Rayner – now Deputy Prime Minister – and the senior Tory MP Dame Priti Patel.
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In January the government unveiled plans to make creating explicit ‘deepfake’ images a criminal offence.
The new legislation will ensure those who make and share intimate images without consent will face up to two years in jail. People who install equipment to take these images could also be imprisoned for up to two years.
Dame Penny, who had a starring role at Charles III’s coronation, became a dame at the King’s Birthday Honours list in June.
The top Tory, who held a string of Cabinet posts, said at the time: “It is lovely to be appreciated in this way, and I’m very conscious that everything I have ever got done has been with the help and efforts of others.”
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