WASHINGTON D.C. (WCIA) — An Illinois senator is leading Congress to allow victims of nonconsensual deepfake pornography to seek legal recourse against people who create and share those images and videos.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) emphasized the importance of Congress acting swiftly on the issue of those nonconsensual sexually explicit pictures in an 8 minute speech on the Senate floor Thursday evening. The bill passed the Senate unanimously, a rarity in Congress.
“Women and girls from all walks of life—from Taylor Swift, to Megan Thee Stallion, to high school girls in my home state of Illinois—have been victims of this form of image-based sexual abuse,” Durbin said. “And, sadly, none of them have legal recourse against the perpetrators because the law is not keeping up with technology.”
The bill would create a “federal civil remedy” for victims depicted in the nude or involved in sexual situations. They would be able to sue individuals who produced or possessed the digital forgery with intent to distribute it; or those who produced, distributed, or received the forgery, if the individual knew or recklessly disregarded that the victim did not consent.
The statute of limitations would last 10 years.
“This landmark legislation cannot become law soon enough,” the Illinois senator said.
Durbin said with the help of artificial intelligence, non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes has been viewed more than 4 billion times. The number of pornographic deepfake videos available online has increased 900 percent since 2019, and 96% of all deepfake videos were nonconsensual pornography.
“When the DEFIANCE Act is signed into law if it is brought up and passes the House, victims will finally have the ability to hold civilly liable those who produce, disclose, solicit, or possess sexually-explicit deepfakes while knowingly or recklessly disregarding that the person depicted did not consent to the conduct,” Durbin concluded in his speech.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is sponsoring the bill in the House of Representatives. She has said being a victim of deepfakes has haunted her.
“We just got one BIG step closer to protecting victims of nonconsensual deepfake pornography,” she said on X. “Thank you Sen. Durbin for your partnership and to my GOP colleagues for their good faith support of this bill.”
More information on the DEFIANCE Act can be found on Durbin’s website.
Illinois passed a similar law last year.
إرسال تعليق