The Senate has passed a bill that could give people a new way to fight back who have had their likenesses appear in sexually explicit images without their consent.
The Dismantling Obvious Fake Images and Non-Consensual Editing Act (Defamation Act), would allow victims to sue the individuals who created the images for civil damages. The bill passed by unanimous consent — meaning there was no roll-call vote, and no senators objected to its passage in the House on Tuesday. It aims to further the work of the Take It Down Act, a law that criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) and requires social media platforms to immediately remove them.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), referenced Groke’s non-consensual undress in comments on the Senate floor. “Grok and While the Take It Down Act, whose takedown provisions will go into full effect later this year, may have implications for X, the Defense Act will impact individuals, such as Grok users creating deepfake non-consensual intimate images.
Governments around the world are creating new protections against AI-generated non-consensual images, inspired by the recent Grok controversy. For example, the UK recently enacted a law that criminalizes the creation of intimate deepfakes without consent.
The Defense Act passed the Senate in 2024 following a separate non-consensual deepfake scandal on X. Earlier that year, sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift circulated on the platform. Durbin, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), introduced a bill to expand a provision in the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 that would have given people the right to sue people whose non-AI generated intimate images were shared without consent. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who has had her image digitally altered in non-consensual intimate deepfakes, sponsored the bill in the House. The bill stalled in the House without a vote during the last Congress, forcing the Senate to take it up again this year. Now the ball is again in the court of the House leadership; If they decide to bring the bill to the House, it will have to be passed to reach the President’s desk.
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