The Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would allow individuals whose image has been used without their consent to create an “intimate” deepfake to sue the creator of the digital forgery for damages.
Illinois Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the lead sponsor of the bill and the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked for unanimous consent to pass the bill and no senator objected. It will now be sent to the House.
“Imagine losing control over your own likeness and identity. Imagine how powerless victims feel when they cannot remove illicit content, cannot prevent it from being reproduced repeatedly and cannot prevent new images from being created,” the senator said in a floor speech. “The consequences can be profound.”
Mr. Durbin said victims of deepfakes face threats to their reputation, which can threaten their employment or educational opportunities, and the deepfakes often expose them to other criminal activity like extortion and stalking.
“Many experience depression, anxiety and fear being in public,” he said. “And in the worst cases, victims have been driven to suicide.”
The bill, called the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits, or DEFIANCE Act, allows deepfake victims to file civil lawsuits in U.S. district courts of appropriate jurisdiction to sue forgery creators for at least $150,000 in damages — more in cases where the deepfake was retaliatory or led to sexual harassment or assault.
The Senate passed the measure, co-sponsored by South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, by unanimous consent last Congress, but it stalled in the House.
Mr. Durbin is hoping the bill will have more momentum this time after Congress last year enacted the Take It Down Act, legislation to criminalize publication of revenge porn, including deepfakes.
First lady Melania Trump lobbied to get that bill over the finish line and could do the same on the DEFIANCE Act, which is led in the House by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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