Deepfakes Are a Form of Violence Against Women

NOW, Campaign to Ban Deepfakes,Congressman Joe Morelle (D-NY) and ActivistsLead DiscussionAbout the Importance of PassingLegislationto Help Survivors

WASHINGTON, DC - Before today's markup of bills to move online safety legislation forward, leaders in advocacy, survivorship, and legislation held a virtual discussion to discuss the impact of deepfakes on women and girls and legislative options to combat them."When we look at deepfake imagery and what it's doing, we have to look at it as a form of sexually based, gender-based violence,"said National NOW President Christian F. Nunes.

This timely discussion was held Tuesday, July 30, in anticipation of today's executive session by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation to move the TAKE IT DOWN Act through the next phase of the legislative process.

"I think this has to be a national effort of the highest order,"said Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY)."We cannot lose a moment, and we are destroying the lives of tens of thousands of women across this country." Morelle is the leading author of legislation that will also protect women online, the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. This bill would prohibit sharing non-consensual, deepfake intimate imagery and give survivors additional paths of legal recourse to seek justice and relief. The bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee but is gaining momentum with additional support from over fifty new co-sponsors.

Andrea Powell, director of Alecto AIand founder of Karana Rising, emphasized the urgency of solutions that include criminal prosecution of offenders. "The reality is, without clear legislation, which is one of the things we're here to talk about today, it's very difficult for survivors to get justice. And justice is a part of healing."

One of the thousands of survivors impacted by deepfake pornography is Breeze Liu, who discussed her journey in advocacy, from finding 800 links of deepfake content of herself to creating Alecto AI to give survivors the resources she lacked. "What started with one video ended up in more than at least 800 links across the Internet. There was no word strong enough in this world to describe how overwhelming or devastating that was."

The TAKE IT DOWN Act would hold individuals accountable for knowingly publishing non-consensual deepfakes and require websites to take down non-consensual deepfakes within 48 hours. But Dr. Landon Klein, Director of US Policy at the Future for Life Institute, says penalties must also target software companies. "It is critical that we enforce prosecution like Rep. Morelle's bill against the people producing deepfakes," said Dr. Klein. "But it's also critical that the developers of this technology face some accountability for producing technology that can proliferate these deepfakes by cutting them off at the source."

Nunes believes banning deepfakes must be done holistically to ensure women are protected and empowered. "Deepfakes come from new technology, but the abuse we face every day as women and girls remain the same. That is why we must approach solving this problem by looking at the situation from multiple contexts."

Liu summed up the roundtable with a profound and overarching plea, "We must build a safer, better tomorrow for our future generations. Do not let my yesterday become their tomorrow."

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