Administrator of deepfake porn site CFake faces trial in Paris
A 47-year-old French computer specialist was scheduled to stand trial in Paris in July 2026 for administering CFake, a website hosting over 300,000 deepfake sexual images and 7,000 videos created without consent. The joint French-U.S. investigation identified approximately 14,000 victims, including prominent women such as politicians, celebrities, and journalists whose images were digitally manipulated into explicit material.
What happened
A 47-year-old computer specialist based in Nice, France, was accused of administering the CFake website, created in 2007, which hosted over 300,000 images and 7,000 videos of deepfake sexual content, averaging about 50 new uploads per day.
The site had approximately 200,000 user accounts and received nearly 4 million views per month, with content categorized by keywords including 'rape', 'coercion', and 'degradation'.
The investigation, conducted jointly by French and U.S. authorities, identified approximately 14,000 presumed victims from various countries whose photographs were digitally manipulated to create fake sexual images of prominent women, including politicians, first ladies, members of royal families, journalists, TV presenters, athletes, and artists.
Reported impact
The deepfake sexual content targeted the dignity and privacy of women, many of them public figures and celebrities whose images were used without consent to create explicit material.
According to U.S. prosecutors, the case represents 'a major victory in the fight against deepfake pornography'.
Governance controls
The site's server was located in the United States, where it was first detected by U.S. law enforcement, who then alerted French judicial authorities.
French prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced the trial date of 7 July 2026 before the Paris Tribunal Judiciaire, emphasizing 'the objective of respect for the law and the dignity of persons, online as much as in real life'.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.