Millionaire and superstar Paris Hilton has paired with congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to fight sexual deepfakes generated by AI with a piece of legislation called the DEFIANCE Act.
The act, which stands for the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, was introduced in 2025 but is still going through the legislative process. It aims to strengthen federal laws pertaining to digital pornographic materials, specifically targeting sexually explicit AI-generated content that uses the image or likeness of people who did not consent to its production.
The law would prohibit the production of sexually explicit AI-generated content using a person’s likeness without their consent. If signed into law, victims of this cybercrime will have a decade to file a legal complaint against perpetrating parties after the date they discover the crime, or after turning 18 for child victims.
Defined by the bill, deepfakes are “synthetic images and videos that look realistic” but are not real. Deepfakes are acts of digital forgery.
The technology used to make them is accessible to anyone on the internet, regardless of skill or expertise in digital content production. Often it is as easy as uploading a photo of someone into an app and instructing the AI program to take off their clothing and replace it with a nude body.
Both Hilton and AOC say they have endured this kind of sexual abuse online.
Hilton says more than 10,000 sexually explicit deepfakes of her exist online.
“It’s incredibly violating knowing these fake images are circulating and being viewed by so many people,” she said in an interview with The Times. “If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
AOC is a co-sponsor of the bill, which has attracted bipartisan support from 57 other sponsors. However, the bill is stalling, having little movement since its 2025 introduction. Hilton hopes her public platform, which includes the successful advocacy of various other bills related to child safety and sexual freedom, will push the legislature into action.
“Over 90% of all deepfake videos made are non-consensual sexually explicit images,” AOC posted on X. “Women are targeted nine times out of 10.”
According to New York state’s Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, one in three people around the globe are victims of image-based abuse. They also say 99% of all sexual deepfakes are images of women, and 96% of all sexual deepfakes are created without the consent of those whose likeness is depicted.
This is happening to both adults and children, too, with a growing concern among teenage girls that their male peers will create sexual deepfakes using their photos and circulate them around the internet. Teens say they fear this will ruin their reputations, hinder their abilities to get into college and make them more vulnerable to sexual abuse in the future.
And while the amount of AI-generated sexual abuse imagery already is astronomical across the internet, the advent of technologies like Meta’s smart glasses have increased this even more. Researchers and attorneys say the footage captured by wearable AI cameras, which are nearly impossible for the general public to notice on a person, are “increasingly feeding the non-consensual intimate imagery market” because photos and videos can be taken without the consent of those depicted, and without the perpetrator even appearing to have taken them.
So as AI technology becomes more advanced by the minute, survivors and advocates urge lawmakers to strengthen protections that will prevent this abuse and hold perpetrators accountable when it happens.
If passed, the DEFIANCE Act would allow sexual deepfake victims to claim up to $250,000 in damages.
Related:
AI ‘deep fakes’ are creating a new way of violating women’s privacy on the internet | Analysis by Mallory Challis
How bad theology has set us up for sexualized AI deepfakes | Analysis by Rick Pidcock
‘Out came this image’ | Analysis by Josh Olds