Senate passes bill that would allow victims of non-consensual deepfakes to sue

Senate I passed a bill This could give people who find themselves deepfaked in sexually explicit images without their consent a new way to fight back.

The Disrupting Explicit Images and Nonconsensual Edits Act (Challenge Act) would allow victims to sue the individuals who created the images for civil damages. The bill was approved by unanimous consent — meaning there was no roll call vote, and no senator objected to its passage Tuesday. We are supposed to build on work Take it lawa law that criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) and requires social media platforms to immediately remove them.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the bill’s lead sponsor, referred to Grok’s undressing without consent in his remarks on the Senate floor. “Even after these horrific fakes, malicious images are directed to Grok and Although the Take It Down Act, whose takedown requirement goes into full effect later this year, could have implications for X, the DEFIANCE Act would impact individuals, like Grok users who create fake intimate photos without consent.

Governments around the world are creating new protections against unwanted AI-generated images, in part due to the recent controversy over the Grok case. The United Kingdom, for example, recently He pushed for a criminal law Creating non-consensual intimacy deepfakes.

DEFIANCE LAW likewise Passed by the Senate in 2024 After a Various non-consensual deepfake scandal on X. Early that year, AI-generated sexually explicit photos of Taylor Swift circulated on the platform. Durbin with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Josh Hawley (R-CO) Submit the bill To expand on a provision in the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, which gives people whose non-AI-generated intimate images are shared without consent the right to file a lawsuit. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who did She found her own photo She digitally edited non-consensual intimacy deepfakes and sponsored the bill in the House. The bill stalled in the House of Representatives without a vote during the last session of Congress, requiring the Senate to approve it again this year. Now the ball is back in the court of the House of Representatives leadership. If they decide to put the bill before the House, it must pass it until it reaches the president’s desk.