Taylor Swift’s viral deepfakes have put new momentum behind efforts to clamp down on deepfake porn. The White House stated the incident was “alarming” and urged Congress to take legislative motion. Thus far, the US has had a piecemeal, state-by-state strategy to regulating the know-how. For instance, California and Virginia have banned the creation of pornographic deepfakes made with out consent. New York and Virginia additionally ban the distribution of this type of content material.
However, we may lastly see motion on a federal stage. A brand new bipartisan invoice that will make sharing pretend nude pictures a federal crime was lately reintroduced within the US Congress. A deepfake porn scandal at a New Jersey highschool has additionally pushed lawmakers to reply with a invoice known as the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. The consideration Swift’s case has delivered to the issue would possibly drum up extra bipartisan help.
Lawmakers all over the world are additionally pushing stricter legal guidelines for the know-how. The UK’s Online Safety Act, handed final 12 months, outlaws the sharing of deepfake porn materials, however not its creation. Perpetrators may withstand six months of jail time.
In the European Union, a bunch of recent payments deal with the issue from completely 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 take away dangerous content material far more shortly.
China’s deepfake regulation, which entered into pressure in 2023, goes the furthest. In China, deepfake creators must take steps to stop the usage of their providers for unlawful or dangerous functions, ask for consent from customers earlier than making their pictures into deepfakes, authenticate folks’s identities, and label AI-generated content material.
Pros: Regulation will provide victims recourse, maintain creators of nonconsensual deepfake pornography accountable, and create a strong deterrent. It additionally sends a transparent message that creating nonconsensual deepfakes will not be acceptable. Laws and public consciousness campaigns making it clear that individuals who create this type of deepfake porn are intercourse offenders may have an actual influence, says Ajder. “That would change the slightly blasé attitude that some people have toward this kind of content as not harmful or not a real form of sexual abuse,” he says.
Cons: It will probably be tough to implement these kinds of legal guidelines, says Ajder. With present strategies, it is going to be arduous for victims to establish who has assaulted them and construct a case in opposition to that particular person. The particular person creating the deepfakes may additionally be in a special jurisdiction, which makes prosecution tougher.