His face, his proportions but a body that belongs to no one. Or better. It’s from thousands of women who helped train the algorithm that stripped her. Francesca Barraclass 1978journalist and TV presenter, found her photographs on a forum dedicated to deep nudes, nude images created withartificial intelligence.
It’s the same case told by Fanpage.it in recent weeks, when we showed what was happening between pages of this forum. Find the video below. A case that also involves other celebrities from Michelle Hunziker to Laura Pausinipassing through Veronica Gentili And Cristina D’Avena. He was immediately compared to Phica. A comparison that it doesn’t hold much: the dynamics of this forum are different, almost more dangerous.
The numbers: the images of Italian celebrities disappear
The first data concern the quantity of material present. Phica was an ocean of images shared without consent. They were in it thousands of conversationswith material accumulated in over 20 years of activity. The first sightings were in 2005. Before the site was closed they could be consulted hundreds of thousands of images. The material present was part of two categories: shots released without consent or images taken from the victim’s social media and used for trigger explicit conversations. Practically all conversations were in Italian.
Not only Francesca Barra, but also other celebrities on the site where they undress women: the system described by Fanpage.it
The forum denounced by Barra is especially in English. More than a forum it is a portal of services related to pornography. There are sections where users can talk to each other. There are sections where you can build a synthetic girlfriend and there are sections where you simply get sent to pornographic sites. Many spaces concern the integrations with artificial intelligence. The main one is a web app dedicated to the production of pornographic images. You insert a photo, make two clicks and the deepfake is created.
The conversation dedicated to the deep nudes of Italian celebrities is just long 18 pages. All posts were published between 2023 and 2025. We also imagine that much of the material has been removed in the last few days. On October 13th the same conversation was long 46 pages. According to the checks we did starting from the domain, the site was opened in 2014. We don’t know if it has always been in business.
What changes compared to the Phica case
This forum based on artificial intelligence it is different from Phica. No less serious, obviously. They are both forms of abuse. But they are based on different mechanisms. It’s not a forum where material is shared. Or at least. That’s not the reason why has become knownalthough there are still sections dedicated to the exchange. It’s a forum where yes produces material.
You can upload anyone’s photograph and turn her into a nude. It doesn’t matter if it’s more or less realistic. Certain. As we have always said, even before artificial intelligence, everything could be done with a photomontage. There is a difference, however, between taking a face, cutting it out and putting it on a body and instead synthesizing the whole process in a matter of seconds. You don’t need minimum graphics skills, you don’t need to choose the photo to process and the quantity of material that can be produced it borders on the infinite.
Phica was a hornet’s nest of commentswhere images of wives, mothers, girlfriends, friends, celebrities or complete strangers were thrown into the sections, fueling conversations in which women were reduced to sexual objects. The forum denounced by Barra is a machine for the creation of deep nudes. It’s not the first. But it is certainly one of the most massive that has appeared in the news in recent months. It will hardly be the last.
