Taylor Swift’s viral deepfakes have put recent momentum behind efforts to clamp down on deepfake porn. The White House said the incident was “alarming” and urged Congress to take legislative motion. So far, the US has had a piecemeal, state-by-state approach to regulating the technology. For instance, California and Virginia have banned the creation of pornographic deepfakes made without consent. Latest York and Virginia also ban the distribution of this type of content.
Nonetheless, we could finally see motion on a federal level. A recent bipartisan bill that might make sharing fake nude images a federal crime was recently reintroduced within the US Congress. A deepfake porn scandal at a Latest Jersey highschool has also pushed lawmakers to reply with a bill called the Stopping Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. The eye Swift’s case has dropped at the issue might drum up more bipartisan support.
Lawmakers world wide are also pushing stricter laws for the technology. The UK’s Online Safety Act, passed last yr, outlaws the sharing of deepfake porn material, but not its creation. Perpetrators could resist six months of jail time.
Within the European Union, a bunch of latest bills tackle the issue from different angles. The sweeping AI Act requires deepfake creators to obviously disclose that the fabric was created by AI, and the Digital Services Act would require tech firms to remove harmful content way more quickly.
China’s deepfake law, which entered into force in 2023, goes the furthest. In China, deepfake creators must take steps to forestall the usage of their services for illegal or harmful purposes, ask for consent from users before making their images into deepfakes, authenticate people’s identities, and label AI-generated content.
Pros: Regulation will offer victims recourse, hold creators of nonconsensual deepfake pornography accountable, and create a strong deterrent. It also sends a transparent message that creating nonconsensual deepfakes just isn’t acceptable. Laws and public awareness campaigns making it clear that folks who create this type of deepfake porn are sex offenders could have an actual impact, says Ajder. “That may change the marginally blasé attitude that some people have toward this type of content as not harmful or not an actual type of sexual abuse,” he says.
Cons: It would be difficult to implement these varieties of laws, says Ajder. With current techniques, it’ll be hard for victims to discover who has assaulted them and construct a case against that person. The person creating the deepfakes may additionally be in a special jurisdiction, which makes prosecution harder.