Mr. Deepfakes, one of the world’s largest platform for non-consensual deepfake pornography, has shut down permanently.

For years, Mr. Deepfakes operated as a central hub for uploading and commissioning non-consensual deepfake content, with a reported 13 million monthly visitors at its peak.

A notice on the site states: “A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation.

“We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake.”

Mr. Deepfakes was a platform allowing users to share techniques, develop datasets, and collaborate on tools that enabled the creation of hyper-realistic pornographic content using the likenesses of real individuals – primarily women, including many celebrities – without their consent.

As platforms like Reddit and Pornhub cracked down on similar content, Mr. Deepfakes became something of a haven for such material. Its forums played a significant role in advancing open-source deepfake software, effectively fuelling the broader spread of the technology for exploitative use.

As of 7 January of this year, the creation of deepfake content within British borders was made a criminal offense within the purview of the Online Safety Act, punishable by up to two years in prison. While itt should be noted that Deepfakes and Non-Consensual Intimate Image Sharing (NCII) were already punishable offenses in the UK since 2023, the new law introduced in January adds additional penalties specifically for creating deepfake content.

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Though the Mr. Deepfakes site founder remains officially anonymous, Der Spiegel has reported tracking one of the individuals behind it earlier this year -a 36-year-old based in Toronto.

The shutdown comes amid increasing global efforts to criminalise non-consensual deepfake content. In recent weeks, the US Congress passed legislation banning the publication of sexually exploitative images, including deepfakes. The UK, as stated before, has made sharing such material illegal, though the creation of it remains a legal grey area in many respects.