Politicians have called for a Canadian man who set up a website posting pornographic deepfake videos of celebrities to face trial in the Netherlands.

The prosecution department (Openbare Ministerie) began an investigation into website MrDeepFakes after the AD found the faces of some 80 Dutch celebrities and MPs had been superimposed on the bodies of actors and actresses in explicit films using AI.

Victims included including TV presenter Olcay Gulsen and BBB party leader Caroline van de Plas. Police have received 20 official complaints from Dutch celebrities, MPs and mayors about the site.

A forensic probe by ethical hacker Anne Jan Brouwer led to David D., a Canadian national from Toronto, being identified as the operator of MrDeepFakes.

D. has admitted setting up the site but told AD in an email that he had sold it “several years ago” to someone he did not previously know. The site has now been taken offline.

Prosecutors are also investigating a 73-year-old Dutch man who is suspected of creating several of the videos.

The man, who lives in Noord-Holland, is said to be one of hundreds of people around the world who provided content for D.’s website. It is unclear if he and D. knew each other personally.

Two years in prison

Political parties BBB, VVD and PvdA-GroenLinks have demanded the extradition of D., who worked as a pharmacist at a hospital before being sacked when the investigation published its findings. Prosecutors have accused him of providing a platform for hundreds of deepfakes of dozens of Dutch celebrities.

Creating pornographic deepfakes and putting them online carries a punishment of two years in jail in the Netherlands, but is not a specific offence in Canada. Recently, MPs backed a proposal to give citizens the copyright to their body, facial features, and voice to prevent AI-generated content from appearing online and being used for fraudulent purposes.

“With over 80 people who have fallen victim to this disgusting practice, it seems logical to me to take D. to court here,” Caroline van der Plas told the paper. His extradition would be “a strong signal that this is unacceptable,” PvdA-GroenLinks MP Songül Mutluer added.

The site, which was taken offline when D’s identity and photo were published by Canadian broadcaster CBC and Danish paper Politiken, featured almost 70,000 videos and clocked up millions of views a month, including 200,000 from Dutch users, making it the largest distributor of AI-manipulated pornographic content.