The digital #MeToo Germany had been avoiding

A recent string of deepfake pornography cases expose a legal system unprepared for AI-driven sexual violations.

Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash

When German environmental activist Luisa Neubauer first stepped onto the stage of “Fridays for Future,” she expected to battle disinformation about climate science — not about her own body.

“For the past seven years, I’ve been wondering what to wear to climate strikes so that my body draws as little attention as possible,” she said in a recent interview with Spiegel Online. “And while I stand in front of my closet trying to figure out how to dress inconspicuously, some men are developing AI programs online that allow them to undress me.”

Neubauer is one of several high-profile women in Germany who have recently stepped forward after discovering -- or being informed of -- AI-generated pornographic deepfakes of themselves circulating online.

What’s now coming to the forefront of the mainstream is something victims and their advocates say they’ve already been fighting for years: a problem that affects ordinary women and girls just as much as (if not mor…