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A 36-year-old pharmacist and dad of one has been exposed as the architect of one of the world’s biggest deep fake porn sites, according to a new documentary.
David Do, who portrayed himself as a loving family man and pillar of his local Toronto community, was uncovered after a years long investigation by veteran tech journalist Laurie Segall, in a series presented by hotel heiress Paris Hilton.
Mr Deepfakes — the site he owned and operated — invited users to create nonconsensual deep fake pornography using images of celebrities, friends, family, acquaintances or simply random images pulled from the internet.
The site, which at its height had over 17 million monthly users, operated in a legal loophole — with zero accountability and consequences, but with thousands upon thousands of often completely unsuspecting victims.
When Segall uncovered Mr Deepfakes’ identity though, she was shocked by his dad next door identity — a well-liked neighbor who lived a parallel life as a community pharmacist.
“Offline, you couldn’t get a bad word about him. We found an Instagram post of him working in a hospital during COVID,” Segall told The Post.
But the dad of one, who lived in a modest house in a nice neighborhood and drove a family car, was unrepentant when Segall confronted him.
“I was shaken because it wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid,” she recalled. “It was more like ‘how dare you show up here’.”
“The reason I set out to do this story is that [what Do did] can turn young boys into a person who thinks its ok to digitally undress someone,” Segall said, of the site which allowed anyone to create fake — shareable — porn with just a photograph of someone.
“It felt so incredibly dystopian. I remember looking at this and thinking how on earth is this allowed to exist.
“I’m speaking to victims who want to end their lives,” she added.
Last week, Segall launched her sprawling 14-part investigation on TikTok alongside Paris Hilton, who said she joined the effort to expose Do, because, “this could happen to anyone.”
The investigation also hit close to home for Hilton, who reportedly has over 100,000 explicit deepfakes of herself online.
When Hilton was 19, an intimate video of her was distributed without her consent.
“There were no laws to protect me,” Hilton said. “If I can make it so other girls don’t have to go through what I went through, that’s so meaningful to me.
“It was like being digitally raped and having the whole world watching it, and laughing […] It’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life.”
The investigation began in 2022 after Segall, a former CNN technology correspondent, received a tip about the site through social media.
The journalist found an online community creating and sharing highly realistic AI-generated sexual videos featuring women without their consent.
What disturbed her most wasn’t just the content itself — it was the discussion forums surrounding it.
Users openly discussed creating fake explicit videos of women they knew personally, including relatives, coworkers and acquaintances.
Segall noted that some users’ fantasies hit disturbingly close to home, including one commenter who said: “Is it wrong that I want to deepfake my sister-in-law.”
Convinced someone needed to be held accountable, Segall launched a digital manhunt.
She enlisted cybersecurity expert David Kennedy — who she described as one of the country’s top ethical decoders — and his team of “good guy hackers” to help trace the anonymous operator.
Kennedy said his investigators used open-source intelligence techniques, tracking down fragmented online clues and digital footprints left across the web.
Along the way, dozens of women came forward claiming they had become victims of deepfake abuse.
One of the featured victims in the series was Los Angeles resident Joanne Chew, who was horrified after searching her own name online and discovering explicit AI-generated videos featuring her face.
Chew said the experience shattered the common misconception that only celebrities are targeted and left her feeling stripped of ownership over her own image and identity.
The duo also spotlighted Molly Kelley, who learned that her husband’s best friend had allegedly used AI tools to generate explicit fake content featuring her and numerous other women in his life.
“The technology exists to make a version of me that can do things online that I would never do and to do sexual acts that I have never done,” Kelley said.
As Segall’s investigation gained momentum, an unexpected tip arrived from a small anti-deepfake group in the Netherlands.
The tip led Segall to Dutch researcher Jordy Ubanski, whose team had spent months tracing digital breadcrumbs across forums, usernames, email addresses and archived posts.
According to the investigation, he believed those breadcrumbs eventually pointed to a Canadian pharmacist named David Do.
The series documents Segall’s subsequent trip to Canada, where she and her team attempted to contact Do at multiple locations, including addresses linked to him and later at the hospital where public records indicated he worked.
“We have strong evidence that you’re behind Mr. Deepfakes. We’ve been trying to get in touch,” she said to Do, who declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Kennedy said his team had developed extensive evidence supporting the identification.
The cybersecurity expert said Do matched the digital trail (stemming from an 8chan post) in “every way, shape or form” and that they had multiple independent methods of corroboration.
Segall said the issue goes far beyond a single website, adding that becoming a parent intensified her and Hilton’s fears about AI advancing faster than the protections designed to rein it in.
The investigation ultimately coincided with mounting pressure from journalists, lawmakers, technology companies and advocates.
According to Segall, Mr. Deepfakes shut down in 2025 after seven years online and billions of views.
Hilton has since continued pushing for legislation aimed at protecting victims of AI-generated harm, including advocacy for the DEFIANCE Act.
The lengthy series struck a chord with viewers, many of whom flooded the reality star’s comments sections with praise.
But for Segall her hope is to hold creators accountable — and to prevent young boys from thinking deepfake porn is just a game.
“Maybe this was a guy who really just loved AI and tech and had just a weird porn thing and just didn’t understand the depth of what he was doing,” Segall said of her interaction with Do.
“Did he understand the harm? I wanted to ask him.”
But to this day, father-of-one Do refuses to answer any of these allegations.
