The call came from a concerned colleague. German journalist Patrizia Schlosser, known for her investigations into the porn industry, was about to confront a disturbing new reality. The link he sent led to a site called Mr DeepFakes, where she discovered grotesque, AI-generated images of herself in sexually explicit and degrading scenarios.
The Genesis of a Global Hub for Abuse
For Schlosser, a reporter for Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) and Funk, the discovery was a profound violation. The images were tagged with offensive, misspelled slurs. "They were very graphic, very humiliating," she recalls. Despite their crude nature, the psychological impact was severe. "It's strange how the brain works. You know it's fake but still you see it. It's not you but also it is you," she explains.
Her subsequent documentary work succeeded in having the specific images removed and she even confronted the young man who created them. Yet the mastermind behind the site itself remained elusive. Investigative group Bellingcat, with analyst Ross Higgins, traced the site's infrastructure to internet service providers (ISPs) also used by serious organised crime networks, including entities linked to the Wagner Group and figures from the Panama Papers. The presumption was a sophisticated criminal operation. The reality was far more mundane, and in some ways, more alarming.
A 'Training Ground' That Mainstreamed Misogyny
Mr DeepFakes was not merely a repository. With over 2 billion page views and content that would take more than 200 days to watch, it was the world's largest nonconsensual deepfake porn site. Its true engine was its forum. Here, so-called 'hobbyists' collaborated, shared academic papers, and solved technical problems. More insidiously, it acted as a marketplace where individuals could commission deepfakes of anyone—a girlfriend, sister, or colleague—for a price.
Film-maker Sophie Compton, who researched the site for the documentary Another Body, states it was instrumental in the proliferation of deepfake abuse. "I really think that there's a world in which the site didn't get made... and deepfake porn is just a fraction of the issue that we have today," she argues. The site emerged in 2018 after Reddit banned such content, causing a small community to 'jump ship'.
"What's so depressing... is realising how easily governments could have stopped this in its tracks," Compton adds. The creators initially feared shutdown, but as action failed to materialise, their boldness grew. The content escalated in violence and degradation, frequently targeting young female celebrities like Emma Watson and Billie Eilish.
Too Little, Too Late: The Shutdown and Lasting Legacy
In anonymous interviews, the site's pseudonymous 'owner' argued no consent was needed as "it's a fantasy, it's not real." While the site earned an estimated $4,000 to $7,000 a month through ads and cryptocurrency memberships, investigators believe notoriety was a key motivator.
The language on the forum was, according to Higgins, "pure misogyny. Pure hatred." The site once posted 6,000 images of US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's face to facilitate deepfakes. The message was clear: public visibility for women invites brutal digital violation.
In April 2024, the UK government's announcement of plans to criminalise deepfake sexual abuse material prompted Mr DeepFakes to immediately block UK users. This, Compton notes, proved the operators were risk-averse. On 4 May 2024, the site shut down permanently, citing data loss from a withdrawn service provider.
Yet the damage is irreversible. The technical knowledge has been democratised. As Patrizia Schlosser discovered while working undercover, the creators have simply moved their services elsewhere. After the shutdown, she received an automated email from one forum user: "Mr DeepFakes is down – but of course, we keep working."
The story of Mr DeepFakes is a stark case study in regulatory failure. A site built on the nonconsensual degradation of women operated with impunity for years, empowering a global network of abusers and embedding a toxic technology into the mainstream. Its closure is not a victory, but a testament to a profound and costly delay in justice.
