&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Doctored image of Giorgia Meloni on porn site sparks outrage in Italy. Sickening details emerge")
A massive outrage has been sparked in Italy after a pornographic website posted doctored images of a bunch of prominent women of the country, including the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Meloni's sister Arianna was also one of the targeted women. The photos were shared with vulgar and sexist captions and were suspected of being harvested from personal social media accounts or public sources before being altered and published on the Italian platform Phica. The website has more than 700,000 subscribers.
The images of women politicians from across party lines had been taken during rallies or TV interviews or while the women were in their bikinis on holiday. They had been altered to zoom in on body parts or suggest sexual poses. They were found in the “VIP section” of the website.
The scandal came just a week after Meta closed down an Italian Facebook account called Mia Moglie (My Wife), where men exchanged intimate photos of their wives or unknown women.
The name Phica is a misspelled play on a slang word in Italian that means vagina. The website was launched in Italy in 2005 and appeared to have operated unhindered until several politicians from the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) announced they had submitted a legal complaint. Police are now investigating.
Other high-profile women whose images were used on the site were: Paola Cortellesi, an actor and the director of an Italian box office hit about domestic violence, C’è Ancora Domani (There’s Still Tomorrow), and Chiara Ferragni, an influencer.
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Valeria Campagna, a PD politician, was among the first to make an official complaint on the matter. She posted on Facebook saying she was “disgusted, angry and disappointed” and “couldn’t stay silent” after discovering that her photos had been published on the site without her consent.
“Not just photos in a swimsuit but moments from my public and private life,” she wrote, adding, "Beneath them there were sexist, vulgar and violent comments. I can’t stay silent because this story isn’t just about me. It’s about all of us. It’s about our right to be free, respected and to live without fear.”
