Is Fake Porn Illegal in Germany? New Law Proposes Up to Two Years in Prison

German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) is proposing to introduce three new criminal offences into the German penal code, targeting what she describes as digital violence. The move, reported by Bild on Friday based on a draft law seen by the newspaper, would make pornographic deepfakes, covert sexual photography and secret digital surveillance punishable by up to two years in prison.

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Pornographic Deepfakes to Become a Criminal Offence

Under the proposed legislation, anyone who creates a deepfake of another person, such as fabricated pornographic imagery, and uses it in a way that damages the reputation of the individual depicted could face up to two years behind bars. "Pornographic deepfakes are a particularly severe form of digital violence," Hubig told Bild. "They show how perfidiously new technologies can be misused to degrade, humiliate, intimidate and exert power."

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The draft law would also make it a criminal offence to secretly photograph or digitally create sexualised images of another person, or to share such material with a third party. This provision is specifically designed to cover upskirting, the act of covertly photographing beneath a person's clothing — bringing it explicitly within the scope of criminal law. Secret digital surveillance would likewise become punishable by up to two years in prison, provided the conduct could lead to serious harm being caused to the victim.

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Cabinet Approval Expected This Spring

According to Bild, the draft law is set to be coordinated with the Federal Chancellery next week, with cabinet approval anticipated before the end of spring. Hubig stressed that digital violence is "brutal" and can harm people just as severely as physical violence. "That is why I make no distinction between analogue and digital violence: every assault is one too many," she said. The minister also characterised the issue as a societal problem, "which we must tackle together."

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New Rights for Victims

Speaking to ARD's Tagesthemen programme, Hubig outlined two key objectives behind the proposed legislation. The first is to close what she described as a "gap in criminal liability" by making the creation, sharing and distribution of pornographic deepfakes explicitly punishable. The second focuses on "better enforceability": victims would gain the right to request the identity behind an IP address and, as a second step, to apply for and have a court order the blocking of an account.

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