Austrian MEP Lena Schilling warns of AI-generated nude images as a democratic problem

Lena Schilling is angry. For a few days now, the MEP from the Austrian Green Party has known that so-called deepfakes of her can be found on the Internet - nude images created using artificial intelligence (AI). The think tank Agora Digital Transformation published a study this week that there are deepfakes of 147 EU representatives online, including 138 women. “We were stripped against our will,” says Schilling.

The parliamentarian describes the manipulated images as violence against women. “Women in politics are affected 33 times more often than men,” says Schilling. "If women have to expect that AI-generated nude pictures of them will appear as soon as they enter politics and become publicly visible, then we have a democratic problem." Schilling is therefore also angry for every young woman who asks herself whether she wants to go into politics. “This cannot be the new normal.”

The study has what it takes to give new impetus to the political debate about deepfakes. On Wednesday, 119 MEPs signed a letter addressed, among others, to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The supporters include the group leaders of the Social Democrats, Liberals, Greens and Left in the European Parliament.

The purpose of digital violence is “the humiliation and control over women’s bodies,” says the letter, which SPIEGEL has received. The effect is “to make public life more hostile for female politicians.”

The EU Parliament and the Council of Member States agreed in May to ban so-called nudifier apps for creating abusive nude images in the EU. This is happening as part of an AI regulation that will come into force in December. “However, a ban on paper does not protect anyone as long as it is not enforced,” warn the signatories of the letter. They criticize the fact that the entire burden has so far fallen on those affected: "They have to find every link, request every deletion and start all over again when new images appear."

The letter calls on the Member States and the EU Commission to establish clear guidelines in a timely manner and to equip national authorities so that the ban can actually be enforced from December. “A ban doesn’t protect anyone if there’s no one there to enforce it on the first day,” says Schilling.

If large online platforms and search engines still advertise so-called undressing apps or distribute intimate images that were not taken consensually, the Commission should take action under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA is the law that regulates digital services in the EU. In fact, Brussels opened a corresponding investigation in January; This is about the AI ​​chatbot Grok from Platform X. “Women want to see results,” it says in the letter.

The signatories are also calling on the member states to quickly implement an EU directive from 2024 into national law. It criminalizes the creation and distribution of manipulated depictions of sexual acts without the consent of those affected.