An adult website of Italy named ‘Phica’ was cracked down for circulating the doctored pornographic images of the high-profile women of the country including that of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Various female celebrities, politicians including PM Meloni staged a strong protest against the website and apparently the online site was shut down. The online scandal was reported to the police and the officials have undertaken an investigation against the culprits.
Prime Minister Georgia Meloni expressed her anger against the miscreants and reiterated that stringent action will be taken on those who commit serious crimes, violate the societal norms and infringe on the rights, safety and dignity of women. She also expressed her solidarity and grief towards the victimized women. “I am disgusted by what has happened, and I want to address my solidarity and closeness to all the women who have been offended, insulted, violated in their intimacy by the managers of this forum and its users”, said PM Meloni while addressing the local press.
“It is disheartening to note that in 2025, there are still those who consider it normal and legitimate to trample on a woman’s dignity and target her with sexist and vulgar insults, hiding behind anonymity or a keyboard”, PM Meloni further added. She also highlighted the importance of upholding right to privacy and data protection in the current digital and data-centric century. Italy does have a “revenge porn” law in place, passed in 2019, that makes the “illegal dissemination of sexually explicit images” punishable by up to six years in prison.
Alessandra Moretti, Member of the European Parliament said that the miscreants were stealing her old photos and video clips from various TV shows and other online platforms and then were manipulating those pictures to feed and satisfy thousands of their users. ‘Phica’, the adult website of Italy reportedly had nearly 7 lakh active users. It was sourcing the images of various high-profile women from different online platforms and was doctoring it to their needs. These altered fake posts and videos also attracted sexist, offensive and derogatory comments from the users as well. Lately, the website was shut down by its own managers after facing intense backlash from the women community and the government forces.
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