Australian man fined for distributing AI-generated deepfake pornography
Anthony Rotondo was ordered by Australia's Federal Court to pay $343,500 in the first case of its kind after the eSafety Commissioner sued him for distributing non-consensual deepfake pornographic images of prominent Australian women on a now-defunct website. Rotondo defied removal notices and court orders, emailing the images to multiple recipients including the regulator and media outlets.
What happened
Anthony Rotondo posted non-consensual deepfake pornographic images of prominent Australian women on a website called MrDeepFakes.com. When the eSafety Commissioner issued a removal notice in 2023, Rotondo replied saying it meant nothing to him as he was not an Australian resident and told the regulator to 'Get an arrest warrant if you think you are right.'
After a court ordered Rotondo to remove the images and not share them, he emailed them to 50 addresses including the eSafety Commissioner and media outlets. Police discovered Rotondo had travelled from the Philippines to the Gold Coast, and he was found in a Gold Coast apartment in December 2023 after Queensland police received a complaint that a Brisbane school had been sent an email with deepfake images of students and teachers.
Reported impact
The regulator argued that the image-based abuse had a damaging impact on the women targeted. The eSafety Commissioner stated that non-consensual creation and sharing of explicit deepfake images 'can cause significant psychological and emotional distress.'
Governance controls
The Federal Court ordered Rotondo to pay a $343,500 penalty plus costs after the eSafety Commissioner brought civil proceedings under the Online Safety Act. Rotondo admitted to contempt of court when he emailed the images to multiple addresses after being ordered not to share them.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.