World's largest non-consensual deepfake site shut down, but the scars remain

The internet’s most notorious hub for non-consensual deepfake material is apparently shutting down for good. A message appearing on the Mr. Deepfakes website states that a crucial service provider ended its relationship with the site, coupled with data loss, making continued operation impossible. The notice, which is expected to remain for about a week, explicitly says the site will not be relaunching.

Here’s a screenshot of the notice on the website as it appears at the time of this writing:

For years, the platform hosted thousands of videos where faces of real individuals, primarily women and often celebrities, were digitally superimposed onto explicit content without their consent. This practice, known as deepfaking, has caused immense distress and reputational damage to countless victims. Sources like The Sun have reported the site attracted as many as 13 million visitors monthly at its peak. It grew significantly after other major platforms like Reddit and Pornhub banned similar content, becoming a central clearinghouse for this type of media.

Beyond just hosting videos, the site’s forums were a critical resource for those creating the deepfakes. As reported by 404 Media, users on the site collaborated to refine techniques, shared software tools, and exchanged datasets needed to mimic specific people. This collaborative environment even contributed significantly to the development of advanced open-source deepfake software, as 404 Media highlighted, demonstrating the site’s role in advancing the harmful technology itself.

The person behind Mr. Deepfakes has remained anonymous, although a report from the German newspaper Der Spiegel in January claimed to have identified them as a 36-year-old man in Toronto working in healthcare. While the site owner reportedly made a significant profit, possibly over $100,000 a year according to Unheard, the cost to victims has been immeasurable. The creation of these videos is a profound violation, essentially hijacking a person’s identity and placing it into fabricated sexual acts. Actress Scarlett Johansson, a frequent target of such fakes, once told The Washington Post that it’s practically impossible to stop her image from being used this way.

Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley and a leading expert in digital manipulation, described the shutdown to 404 Media as an “important victory for victims.” However, he quickly added that it was “far too little and far too long in the making.” Farid emphasized that technology companies, financial services, and advertisers who enabled sites like Mr. Deepfakes need to take more responsibility for their role in the creation and distribution of non-consensual imagery.

While the closure of Mr. Deepfakes removes a major hub, it doesn’t erase the damage done or the underlying problem. The technology is widespread, tools are readily available, and the community that once thrived on the site has already found new places to gather and share, including platforms like Telegram. The trauma inflicted upon victims remains, a lasting reminder of the harm enabled by the site’s existence. The fight against the non-consensual use of deepfake technology is far from over.