AOC Leads Charge Against AI-Generated Pornographic Deepfakes

Five years after legislation was first introduced to combat the spread of artificial intelligence-generated deepfake images online, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan proposal to help victims of such "digital forgery," saying those affected have "waited too long" for federal action to hold perpetrators accountable.

The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Nonconsensual Edits Act of 2024 (DEFIANCE Act) would amend the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to create a federal civil right of action for people whose likeness is created without their consent using software, AI, or other computer-generated or technological programs and is used to depict the victim "in the nude or engaged in sexually explicit conduct or sexual scenarios."

"As deepfakes become easier to access and create," said Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), "Congress needs to act to show victims that they won't be left behind. The DEFIANCE Act will allow victims to finally defend their reputations and take civil action against individuals who produced, distributed, or received digital forgeries."

The Senate's version of the bill was introduced in late January by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

Durbin said Congress has "struck a remarkable bipartisan note" in favor of protecting people from deepfake nonconsensual pornography, which makes up 96% of deepfake videos circulating online, according to a 2019 study by cybersecurity company DeepTrace Labs. All of the videos examined in the study depicted women.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has been victimized by deepfake videos before, told Rolling Stone that there is an "urgency of the moment because folks have waited too long to set the groundwork for this."

Omny Miranda Martone, founder and CEO of the Sexual Violence Prevention Association, which endorsed the DEFIANCE Act, called deepfake pornography "a form of digital sexual violence."

"It violates victims' consent, autonomy, and privacy," said Martone. "Victims face increased risk of stalking, domestic abuse, loss of employment, damaged reputation, and emotional trauma."

The legislation is endorsed by numerous other groups that have fought against the online proliferation of nonconsensual pornography, including the National Women's Law Center, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), and the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice.

"The proliferation of nonconsensual, sexually explicit 'deepfake' images has exploded online, harming hundreds of thousands and threatening to harm anyone who has a photo online," said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of NCOSE. "It is past time that our laws catch up and hold the perpetrators of this abuse accountable! The DEFIANCE Act is a critical step forward allowing a path to some justice for survivors through civil remedies. This federal law will surely stop many abusers from creating this exploitive content!"