A teenage victim of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes joined Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., on Tuesday to advocate for a bipartisan bill that would criminalize sharing such material at the federal level, NBC News reported.
In May, Morelle introduced the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, but no further action has been taken. In addition to criminalizing the nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit deepfakes, the measure would also create a right of private action for victims to be able to sue creators and distributors of the material while remaining anonymous.
Currently, U.S. victims are limited by a patchwork of state laws that govern deepfakes, and there is no federal law regarding them. Since the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act was introduced last year, dozens of new deepfake victims have spoken out, including New Jersey high schooler Francesca Mani, who spoke at Tuesday’s news conference.
Mani said her school administration told her on Oct. 20 that male classmates had created and shared sexually explicit deepfakes of her and more than 30 other girls. She has never seen the images and said she was told they were destroyed.
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“This issue is pretty black and white,” Mani said. “No kid, teen or woman should ever have to experience what I went through. I felt sad and helpless.”
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