The measure is a direct response to the proliferation of pornographic images made by artificial intelligence from Taylor Swift on X, formerly known as Twitter, in recent days.
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The proposal would allow victims depicted in deepfakes nude or explicitly sexual images sought a civil penalty against “individuals who produced or possessed the counterfeit with the intent to distribute it” or anyone who received the material knowing it was not done with consent. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin and Senators Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley are behind the bill, known as Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024, or “Defiance Law”.
“This month, fake, sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift generated by artificial intelligence spread across social media platforms. Although the images are fake, the harm to victims from distributing sexually explicit 'deepfakes' is very real,” Durbin said. in a press release.
Exaggerated, sexualized images of Swift at football games went viral over the weekend on X, racking up tens of millions of views, according to Twitter metrics.
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AI-made images or videos of real people, commonly known as “deepfakes,” have become increasingly common on the internet as the barrier to creating them lowers, a result of the boom in artificial intelligence in recent years. Some remove a person's clothes or superimpose a person's face over another's to make them say something they didn't say; some are entirely AI-generated. Swift's images were likely taken using the Microsoft Designer and first shared on Telegram, according to 404 Media. A Microsoft introduced changes to close the technical gap that allowed the images to be created.
“No one – neither celebrities nor ordinary Americans – should see themselves portrayed in AI-generated pornography. Innocent people have the right to defend their reputations and hold perpetrators accountable to justice. This bill will make that a reality,” Hawley said.
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