Dutchman, 73, suspected of making deepfake porn of Dutch celebs, MPs
The police have identified a suspect behind deepfake pornography videos featuring various Dutch celebrities and politicians on the now-offline website MrDeepFakes. The suspect is a 73-year-old man from Noord-Holland, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed to the newspaper AD.
The OM launched an investigation into MrDeepFakes last year after AD revealed that the site contained pornography featuring the faces of approximately 80 Dutch celebrities, parliamentarians, and mayors. Their faces had been rendered onto the bodies of porn actresses using artificial intelligence, and the images were nearly indistinguishable from the real ones.
At least 20 Dutch parliamentarians and celebrities filed charges. The OM launched an investigation and has now identified a first suspect. The 73-year-old man is suspected of creating some of these deepfake videos. The OM is awaiting the case file and will soon make a decision about arresting the man.
MrDeepFakes went offline worldwide in May. The man allegedly behind the site is a pharmacist from Canada. According to AD, the political parties BBB, VVD, and GroenLinks-PvdA will submit a request with the OM to have the man extradited from Canada and tried in the Netherlands.
The OM did not comment on this possibility, saying that the investigation is currently focusing primarily and the creators and uploaders of the explicit videos.
