The shutdown of MrDeepFakes happened last week just after the US Congress enacted the Take It Down Act, which made it a crime to post non-consens sexual imagery.
John Mooney, Investigations Editor for The Sunday Times, reveals “the faces of some of Ireland’s most celebrated female actors, singers and writers were inserted into extreme pornographic videos using artificial intelligence-generated deepfake content that were viewed millions of times online every month.
“The non-consensual material appeared on MrDeepFakes, a website that specialised in Al-generated pornography involving public figures. It was taken offline last week after the open-source investigation group Bellingcat and Danish journalists revealed theidentity of its administrator.
“David Do, a 36-year-old hospital pharmacist living in Toronto, is now the subject of multiple investigations.
“MrDeepFakes was the largest hosting site for celebrity deepfake pornography, containing nearly 70,000 explicit - and in some cases, violent - videos. An analysis by researchers shows a significant cohort of victims were Irish. Their images and professional details appear to have been harvested from their agents' websites and other public sources. Their images and likeness were then used to generate hyper- realistic pornography.
“The women whose identities were misused have requested that their names not be published due to the distressing nature of the content and the fear of further exposure. The majority of those contacted by The Sunday Times were unaware their identities had been stolen.
It’s unclear if the manufacture of deepfake pornography using AI is a crime in Ireland, though the publication of intimate images without consent has been an offence since 2021.
Persons convicted of sharing such images can face a maximum prison sentence of up to seven years. Malcolm Byrne, a Fianna Fail TD who has introduced the Protection of Voice and Image Bill 2025, which makes it an offence to use AI to impersonate people, said he believed deepfake porn was not illegal in Ireland.
