Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned fake images of herself generated by artificial intelligence, calling deepfakes a "dangerous tool" that can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. The episode shows how digital platforms can be used to circulate sexualised material, while the political class responds with laws, lawsuits, and public warnings that still leave the machinery of abuse intact.
Who Gets Targeted
Meloni, the far-right leader, posted one of the fake AI-generated photos on her social media accounts on Tuesday and said the pictures, showing her in scanty underclothes, had been circulating in recent days. In a post on X, Meloni wrote, "In these days, several fake photos of me are circulating, generated with artificial intelligence and passed off as real by some zealous opponent," and added, "Check before you believe, and believe before you share. Because today it’s happening to me; tomorrow it could happen to anyone." The warning is broad, but the immediate fact is simple: the images were already moving through the online swamp before she publicly responded.
She also included a reply from a social media user who appeared to have been taken in by the photo, who wrote that the prime minister's appearance in such attire was "shameful and unworthy of the institutional role she holds." That reaction captures the social policing wrapped around the images: the humiliation is not only in the fabrication, but in the ready-made moral judgment that follows it.
Meloni said, "Deepfakes are a dangerous tool, because they can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many others cannot." The line draws a sharp divide between those with power and visibility and those without it. She can speak from the top of the state apparatus; others, she says, cannot.
What the State Does Next
Doctored sexualised images of the prime minister have surfaced before, particularly last year on a pornographic website that included altered images of high-profile women. In response, the government passed a law that criminalised deepfakes that caused "unjust harm" to the person depicted. The legal answer arrived after the damage was already circulating, another familiar performance of institutional repair after the fact.
In 2024, Meloni sued two men for €100,000 who produced fake videos of the premier which they then posted on a US pornographic website. The lawsuit shows how the legal system becomes the chosen tool when the person harmed has access to it. The article does not describe any comparable protection for those who cannot sue for €100,000 or command the same attention.
The government’s law and Meloni’s lawsuit sit alongside the same basic reality: fake sexualised images can spread quickly, and the institutions that claim to regulate harm move only after the harm has already been done. The law criminalised deepfakes that caused "unjust harm," but the article gives no sign that this has stopped the circulation of such material.
The Machinery of Humiliation
The fake photos were generated with artificial intelligence and passed off as real by what Meloni called "some zealous opponent." That phrase points to the way online abuse can be folded into political hostility, with manufactured images used as a weapon of degradation. The article does not identify the source of the images beyond that description, but it does show how quickly a fake can be treated as truth by people scrolling through the feed.
Euronews said the article was by Gabriele Barbati and published on 06/05/2026 at 10:38 GMT+2, updated at 11:41. The timing underscores how fast these episodes move through the media cycle: the images circulate, the outrage follows, and the institutional response arrives as a separate event.
Meloni’s public warning that "tomorrow it could happen to anyone" is the closest thing in the article to a broader social claim. The rest is the usual hierarchy of protection: a prime minister can post, sue, and push for criminal law, while the people below are left to "check before you believe" in a system built to reward speed, spectacle, and humiliation.