U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is calling for the passage of a bill that would make it easier for the victims of nonconsensual AI porn to sue the publishers, distributors and consumers of fake X-rated images and videos.
Ocasio-Cortez, along with Democratic Women’s Caucus Policy Co-Chair Ayanna Pressley, held a roundtable discussion earlier this week about the harms that sexually-explicit deepfake pornography can do and how legislation can empower victims to seek justice. The bogus porn has swept the internet in recent years, and women and girls are typically the targets.
“Today, the Democratic Women’s Caucus, Bipartisan Women’s Caucus, and survivors came together to discuss the urgent need for action against a rising tidal wave of nonconsensual deepfake pornography,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “Over 90% of all deepfake videos made are nonconsensual sexually explicit images, and women are the targets 9 times out of 10”
The legislation, spearheaded by Ocasio-Cortez and called The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act), was introduced in March and its companion bill was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in July.
Ocasio-Cortez, who herself is a victim of sexually explicit deepfake images, told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview earlier this year that she came across the images while scrolling through the social media site X in the car with some staffers.
“And once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it,” Ocasio-Cortez said to Rolling Stone. “It parallels the same exact intention of physical rape and sexual assault, [which] is about power, domination, and humiliation. Deepfakes are absolutely a way of digitizing violent humiliation against other people.”
Also attending the roundtable discussion was actor and activist Sophia Bush, the executive producer of the documentary “Another Body,” which chronicles a woman’s search for justice after becoming a victim of deepfake pornography.
“We are living in a world where too many people, women especially, are being targeted through nefarious applications of technology,” Bush said in a statement. “My hope is that the House follows the Senate by passing this monumental legislation that will give victims a means to finding protection and justice.”
