Revenge porn laws now encompass deepfakes

A state in the US has taken the first step in which it has expanded its nonconsensual pornography ban to include realistic fake videos and images that include but not limited to deepfakes. Virginia’s amendment was passed early on in 2019 and has just gone into effect, making it one of the first in the world to cover deepfakes.

Since a few years, Virginia has banned the spread of naked videos and photos ‘with the intent to coerce, harass or intimidate’ another individual. This new amendment states that this includes ‘a falsely created videographic or still image’ which could refer to deepfake videos but also Photoshopped images or faked footage. Violating this rule is regarded as a Class 1 misdemeanour and carries a prison sentence up to 1 year and up to USD 2500 in fines.

The Verge states, “Deepfakes” — a term that was coined to describe AI-generated face-swaps in pornography, but has been expanded to cover faked media more generally — have raised serious alarm among lawmakers and the public. Deepfakes creators often map women’s faces onto pornography, making them an easy venue for nonconsensual pornography or “revenge porn.” An app called DeepNude modified pictures of women to make them appear nude; it shut down soon after Motherboard reported on its existence.”

Critics also fear that deepfakes can be also used to circulate political information. These fears increased after a doctored video was made of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sounding drunk; however, the video was not believed to be using deepfake technology.

The report goes on to state, “Nonconsensual pornography laws are also a relatively recent phenomenon, but they’ve spread quickly over the past several years; as The New York Times notes, 41 states had banned “revenge porn” by early 2019.”