Federal Court fines man AU$343,500 over deepfake porn

Anthony Rotondo was fined AU$343,500 by the Federal Court after Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant brought a first-of-its-kind civil case over his posting of non-consensual deepfake porn of prominent women. Justice Erin Longbottom found he committed multiple breaches—14 occasions between November 2022 and October 2023—by uploading explicit images to MrDeepFakes.com, and the court suppressed the victims' names. Rotondo repeatedly defied removal orders, told regulators he was not an Australian resident, emailed the images to about 50 addresses (including the eSafety office and media), and was earlier fined AU$25,000 for contempt. Police located him after travel from the Philippines to the Gold Coast, and the images were taken down after he voluntarily provided passwords to remove them. The eSafety Commissioner said the case highlights the serious psychological and emotional harm caused by non-consensual deepfakes and marks a significant step in combating online image-based abuse.