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  "description": "In a new series by CBC Podcasts, hosted by 404 Media's Sam Cole, join journalists, investigators, and targets of non-consensual intimate images on the hunt for the worlds’ most prolific deepfake mastermind.",
  "path": "/cbc-podcast-mr-deepfakes-porn-empire/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-03T19:22:26.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.404media.co",
  "tags": [
    "_Check it out here_",
    "View this post on Instagram",
    "A post shared by 404 Media (@404mediaco)",
    "The Dawn of Fake Porn",
    "_So You’ve Been Deepfaked_",
    "The Notorious D.P.F.K.S.",
    "_Pornhub Empire,_"
  ],
  "textContent": "Mr. Deepfakes was the biggest website in the world for sharing AI-generated abuse imagery, swapping tips and tricks for more realistic results, and posting endless, fake, nonconsensual videos of everyone from celebrities to everyday people. In a new podcast by the CBC, I got to tell the tale of how deepfakes started, what targets go through, and where we go next.\n\nIt's called Understood: Deepfake Porn Empire. It's about the decades-long rise of non-consensual deepfake porn, the targets who are fighting back, and what it takes to stop its proliferation. _Check it out here_ and listen wherever you get your podcasts.\n\nThe first three episodes are already up, so you can binge them all before the finale next Tuesday.\n\n>  View this post on Instagram \n>\n> A post shared by 404 Media (@404mediaco)\n\nIn the first episode, \"The Dawn of Fake Porn,\" you’ll get a fascinating history of the decades of cultural and technological standards that set the stage for AI-generated nonconsensual imagery as we know it today. I learned a lot in this episode myself, including about a guy who went by “Lux Lucre” who ran two Usenet groups dedicated to fake nudes of celebrities in the 90s. This stuff goes _so_ much farther back than you might realize.\n\nIn episode two, “ _So You’ve Been Deepfaked_,” I got the chance to talk to Taylor, who discovered she’d been targeted by AI images while at university, working in a male-dominated field. Instead of hoping it’d go away, she set out to find her harasser, and found his other targets in the process. It all led back to one place: the biggest deepfake site in the world, Mr. Deepfakes.\n\nEpisode three just came out today: “The Notorious D.P.F.K.S.” is a romp through the investigative highs and lows that led a team of journalists scattered around the world to the door of Mr. Deepfakes himself. I was so thrilled to talk to investigative journalist Ida Herskind, OSINT specialist Zakaria Hameed, and Bellingcat’s Ross Higgins in this episode. Come for the _How I Met Your Mother_ references, stay for the gripping chase.\n\nEpisode four, the series finale, launches next week. It’s a true crime story with CBC reporters on stakeouts and infiltrating hospitals, and legal and social experts breaking down what it all means now that we’re in a post-Mr. Deepfakes world—but far from a post-AI abuse landscape. Follow the Understood feed wherever you listen to get it when it comes out on Tuesday.\n\nIf you liked this season, head back to catch up on another series I hosted with the CBC: _Pornhub Empire,_ on the rise and fall of the porn monolith.\n\nTune in and let me know what you think!",
  "title": "New Podcast Alert: The Globe-Spanning, Multi-Newsroom Hunt for Mr. Deepfakes",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-03T19:22:26.741Z"
}