{"schema_version":"0.8.0","id":"LR-2026-0210","record_version":4,"title":"Nude deepfakes of Austrian MEP Lena Schilling and 49 other MEPs circulated online","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":49.0,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":5.44,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-09-30.6","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-18","extraction_run_id":null},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":"nudifier apps and websites","tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":"embedded","intended_use":"to undress women in photos, generating sexualised deepfakes","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-18","incident_class":"harmful_output","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":false,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"third_party","summary":"An Austrian MEP, Lena Schilling, learned last month that nude deepfakes made from an altered press-conference photo of her were circulating online; the Berlin thinktank Agora Digitale Transformation alerted her to the images.","tags":["deepfake","non-consensual-intimate-imagery","politicians","gender-based-violence"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":"unknown","root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":50,"severity":"major","severity_because":"major: Many third parties were affected: 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, were targeted by sexualised deepfakes.","harm_class":["privacy","discriminatory","reputational"],"affected_description":"50 MEPs, 46 of them women, targeted by sexualised deepfakes; 138 female parliamentarians from 22 EU countries in an earlier report","protected_class_involved":true,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/18/mep-lena-schilling-nude-deepfakes-eu-action","publisher":"The Guardian","date":"2026-10-18","type":"press","title":"‘I felt disgusted’: MEP speaks out over nude deepfakes and urges EU action","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.harness":"C","system.integration_type":"D","system.intended_use":"C","system.developer":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","event.tags":"C","event.root_cause":"D","event.agent_involved":"D","event.detection_method":"C","event.incident_class":"D","event.summary":"C","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","impact.third_parties_affected_count":"C","impact.harm_class":"D","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.protected_class_involved":"D","impact.severity":"D","context.industry":"D","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"C","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.harness":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Signed by 119 MEPs, it called on officials to ensure that a forthcoming ban on apps and websites that use AI to undress women, scheduled to take effect across the EU on 2 December, would be paired with mechanisms capable of enforcing the prohibition."}],"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"system.deployment_context":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"system.integration_type":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"system.autonomy_level":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The Berlin-based thinktank, which alerted Schilling to the presence of the images online, said the finding laid bare how deepfake pornography had become a “systemic threat to women in European politics”."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT)."}],"event.root_cause":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling described the images as a form of “digital violence against women” piled on top of the already disproportionate amount of sexist abuse, harassment and violence that women in politics faced."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online."}],"impact.third_parties_affected_count":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT)."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"An earlier ADT report found that 138 female parliamentarians from 22 EU countries had been affected, and that women were 33 times more likely than their male colleagues to be depicted in or associated with deepfake pornography."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling described the images as a form of “digital violence against women” piled on top of the already disproportionate amount of sexist abuse, harassment and violence that women in politics faced."}],"impact.protected_class_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"An earlier ADT report found that 138 female parliamentarians from 22 EU countries had been affected, and that women were 33 times more likely than their male colleagues to be depicted in or associated with deepfake pornography."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT)."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Lena Schilling of the Green party said she had learned last month about nude deepfakes of herself circulating online."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"An Austrian MEP has spoken out about her experience of being “stripped naked” online without her consent and has urged the EU to take action, as a report found that one in six female MEPs had been targeted by sexualised AI-generated content."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT)."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-18"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No source names the model, developer or operator of the nudifier tools; system.model_name, model_version, permissions_scope, guardrails_present, safeguard_state, production_intended, lifecycle_stage and tier are left unwritten. No source states a date the deepfakes were made or first circulated (only that Schilling learned 'last month'), so event.date_occurred is omitted; no detection or containment dates are given, so no bounds. No source states a monetary loss, records count, remediation hours, reversibility or downstream exposure. event.failure_class is null because no autonomous agent was involved. event.trigger human_misuse is classified from Schilling's statement that someone used the image 'in a way aimed at harming and humiliating me'. event.incident_class harmful_output is classified from the report that MEPs were targeted by sexualised deepfakes; bias_disparate_impact is a plausible alternative given the 33x gender disparity but the primary harm is the non-consensual sexualised output. impact.harm_class and protected_class_involved are classified from the ADT gender-disparity finding. context.industry is classified from the MEP/public-administration context. No source states who first noticed beyond the thinktank alerting Schilling. event.trigger: human_misuse was classified, not stated; a trigger is never inferred, so it is unknown. system.tier: not set; no operator named and deployment_context is not a lab's. [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-18] system.integration_type: classified from described behaviour. system.developer: no source names the developer. system.deployment_context: no source states where it ran. system.autonomy_level: no source states the arrangement. event.agent_involved: classified from described behaviour. event.incident_class: a source states the system produced content, or carried out an action, that it should have refused. event.trigger: no source states a cause. impact.harm_class: classified from described behaviour. impact.protected_class_involved: classified from described behaviour. context.industry: classified from described behaviour. context.denominator_available: no denominator is available for this incident. [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-18 in the corrections review: severity reason printed the whole rubric] [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: a judgement inferred by us that no source states was cleared]"},"context":{"industry":"Public administration and government","org_size_band":null,"country":"AT","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"AI 'nudifier' apps and websites were used to digitally remove clothing from photos of women, including MEP Lena Schilling, producing sexualised deepfakes that circulated online. The operators of the tools are not identified.","quote":"“A ban on paper protects no one until it is enforced,” the letter said, pointing to the widespread use of “nudifier” apps in which photos of women can be undressed with just one click.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"Images of Schilling from one of her first press conferences were digitally altered to remove her clothing and circulated online without her consent, breaching her right not to be depicted naked against her will.","quote":"When she opened the links, she found herself staring at images from one of her first ever press conferences – but the images had been digitally altered to remove her clothing.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The altered images circulated online and were seen by Schilling herself; an ADT report found 50 MEPs, 46 of them women, had been targeted, and an earlier report found 138 female parliamentarians from 22 EU countries affected.","quote":"Schilling is one of 50 MEPs – 46 of them women – who have been targeted by sexualised deepfakes, according to a report by Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT).","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The Berlin-based thinktank Agora Digitale Transformation alerted Schilling to the presence of the images online; the article does not say how the thinktank found them.","quote":"The Berlin-based thinktank, which alerted Schilling to the presence of the images online, said the finding laid bare how deepfake pornography had become a “systemic threat to women in European politics”.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"Schilling spoke publicly and, with MEP Terry Reintke, initiated a letter signed by 119 MEPs urging the EU to pair a forthcoming ban on AI undress apps with enforcement mechanisms and to close loopholes.","quote":"Signed by 119 MEPs, it called on officials to ensure that a forthcoming ban on apps and websites that use AI to undress women, scheduled to take effect across the EU on 2 December, would be paired with mechanisms capable of enforcing the prohibition.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-18","source_urls":["https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/18/mep-lena-schilling-nude-deepfakes-eu-action"]}}