Deepfake bill would open door for victims to sue creators

A bipartisan group of three senators is looking to give victims of sexually explicit deepfake images a way to hold their creators and distributors responsible.

A bipartisan group of three senators is looking to give victims of sexually explicit deepfake images a way to hold their creators and distributors responsible.

Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., plan to introduce the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act on Tuesday, a day ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on internet safety with CEOs from Meta, X, Snap and other companies. Durbin chairs the panel, while Graham is the committee’s top Republican.

Victims would be able to sue people involved in the creation and distribution of such images if the person knew or recklessly disregarded that the victim did not consent to the material. The bill would classify such material as a “digital forgery” and create a 10-year statute of limitations. 

“The volume of deepfake content available online is increasing exponentially as the technology used to create it has become more accessible to the public,” Durbin’s office said in a news release. “The laws have not kept up with the spread of this abusive content.”

In the release, the senators noted that Taylor Swift had recently become a victim of such deepfakes, which spread across Elon Musk’s X and later Instagram and Facebook.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/deepfake-bill-open-door-victims-sue-creators-rcna136434

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