Taylor Swift’s viral deepfakes have put new momentum behind efforts to clamp down on deepfake porn. The White Home mentioned the incident was “alarming” and urged Congress to take legislative motion. Up to now, the US has had a piecemeal, state-by-state strategy to regulating the expertise. 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 kind of content material. 

Nevertheless, we might lastly see motion on a federal stage. A brand new bipartisan invoice that may make sharing faux nude photos a federal crime was not too long ago reintroduced within the US Congress. A deepfake porn scandal at a New Jersey highschool has additionally pushed lawmakers to reply with a invoice referred to as the Stopping Deepfakes of Intimate Photographs Act. The eye Swift’s case has dropped at the issue would possibly drum up extra bipartisan help. 

Lawmakers all over the world are additionally pushing stricter legal guidelines for the expertise. The UK’s On-line Security Act, handed final 12 months, outlaws the sharing of deepfake porn materials, however not its creation. Perpetrators might resist six months of jail time. 

Within 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 Providers Act would require tech corporations to take away dangerous content material way more shortly. 

China’s deepfake legislation, which entered into drive in 2023, goes the furthest. In China, deepfake creators must take steps to forestall the usage of their companies for unlawful or dangerous functions, ask for consent from customers earlier than making their photos into deepfakes, authenticate folks’s identities, and label AI-generated content material. 

Professionals: Regulation will supply victims recourse, maintain creators of nonconsensual deepfake pornography accountable, and create a robust deterrent. It additionally sends a transparent message that creating nonconsensual deepfakes shouldn’t be acceptable. Legal guidelines and public consciousness campaigns making it clear that individuals who create this kind of deepfake porn are intercourse offenders might have an actual influence, says Ajder. “That will change the marginally blasé angle that some folks have towards this type of content material as not dangerous or not an actual type of sexual abuse,” he says. 

Cons: It is going to be tough to implement these types of legal guidelines, says Ajder. With present methods, will probably be laborious for victims to determine who has assaulted them and construct a case in opposition to that particular person. The particular person creating the deepfakes may also be in a special jurisdiction, which makes prosecution harder.