MrDeepFakes is dead, and activists couldn’t be happier
The web's largest deepfake pornography site, MrDeepFakes, has been forced to shut down following legal pressure from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Image by Cybernews
The web's largest deepfake pornography site, MrDeepFakes, has been forced to shut down following legal pressure from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
In a farewell message on the platform's website, administrators lament that “a critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation.”
“We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake. This domain will eventually expire, and we are not responsible for future use,” those responsible for the message warn.
MrDeepFakes, which garnered attention from 6 million monthly visitors, hosted content generated using artificial intelligence, the media outlet Tweakers first reported.
According to Tweakers, the site was controlled by a group of people consisting of a 36-year-old Canadian administrator and Russian cybercriminals.
MrDeepFakes was supposedly “the best celebrity deepfake porn tube site” which featured celebrity porn videos and fake nude images of actors, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and other notable figures.
By professors and researchers, MrDeepFakes was known as the largest and most notorious deepfake marketplace on the web.
Professor Clare McGlynn of Durham University said via X that MrDeepFakes was “blocked for UK users following plans to criminalize creating sexually explicit deepfakes.”
Significant new research on #MrDeepFakes from @Stanford revealing the nature & extent of the content, analysis of the marketplace and motivations of users, with significant implications for law reform and regulation. My take on key findings & lessons ⏬https://t.co/yaBiI0lVJC pic.twitter.com/3UWizCBtm0
undefined Prof Clare McGlynn KC (Hon) (@McGlynnClare) January 13, 2025
Activist and founder of the “Justice Defense Fund,” a nonprofit committed to empowering those who have suffered from tech-facilitated sexual abuse, congratulates “survivors and advocates who have been pushing from this mega abuse site to be held accountable.”
BREAKING: https://t.co/IGbv3YzdrC, the biggest website for nonconsensual deepfake p*rnographic abuse on the internet just announced it’s been permanently shut down.
undefined Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) May 5, 2025
Congrats to the survivors and advocates who have been pushing for this mega abuse site to be held accountable! 👊 pic.twitter.com/csKjp5Biwh
Following pressure from activists and countries like the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, MrDeepFakes has finally closed its doors.
The site’s termination comes just after Congress passed the “Take It Down Act,” which criminalizes the upload of nonconsensual deepfake pornography and other explicit imagery, CBS reports.
While this may not have been a result of the new act, governments and legislators are cracking down on the deepfake porn pandemic.