Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has condemned in the strongest terms the circulation of doctored explicit images of herself and other prominent women, calling it a shameful assault on dignity and privacy.
The controversy erupted after a pornographic forum, Phica, named after an Italian slang term for vagina, was discovered to be carrying manipulated photographs of high-profile women, including Meloni, her sister Arianna, and several celebrities. The platform, which had hundreds of thousands of subscribers, was forced to shut down on Thursday following public outrage. Its operators claimed the closure was prompted by users repeatedly violating community rules.
“I am disgusted by what happened, and I want to extend my solidarity and support to all the women who have been offended, insulted, and violated in their intimacy by the managers of this forum and its users,” Meloni maintained.
She further denounced the persistence of misogyny online, noting, “It is disheartening to note that in 2025, there are still those who consider it normal and legitimate to trample on a woman’s dignity and target her with sexist and vulgar insults, hiding behind anonymity or a keyboard.”
The site’s subscribers allegedly sourced photographs from social media and other public domains before digitally altering them with obscene captions.
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Meloni underlined the urgent need for tighter safeguards against such abuse. In a pointed reference to Italy’s existing laws on revenge porn, she observed that such actions were no longer confined to cases of personal revenge. “Protecting our data and our privacy is increasingly crucial in our times,” she emphasised.
Italy passed a law in 2019 criminalising the dissemination of sexually explicit images without consent, punishable by up to six years in prison. Campaigners are now calling for stronger enforcement in light of the latest scandal.
Her sister Arianna Meloni, a politician in the Brothers of Italy party, also condemned the incident, describing it as symptomatic of a wider social malaise. “It is a bad habit of a click-through society, where we intrude on private life, we offend, we peek through keyholes, we ruin lives, and we belittle the real, important things that women achieve and conquer with their work day after day,” she said.
The furore has triggered fresh debate across Italy about the vulnerability of women in public life to online abuse and the adequacy of laws to protect them from technological exploitation.
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