Deepfake Pornography To Be Covered Under Illinois Revenge Porn Law Starting Monday

SPRINGFIELD, IL — With the start of the new year Monday, people whose likenesses are used to create digital pornography without their consent can sue in state court, thanks to a new law championed by a pair of north suburban lawmakers.

House Bill 2123, the Digital Forgeries Act, was introduced in the Illinois House by State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) and sponsored in the Senate by Mary Edly Allen (D-Libertyville.) It unanimously passed both chambers in the spring and was signed into law by the governor in July, with an effective date of Jan. 1.

The law establishes civil penalties for the creation and distribution of sexually explicit images and video created by artificial intelligence, also known as deepfake porn, by including "digitally altered sexual images" in the Civil Remedies for Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images Act, which allows victims of so-called "revenge porn" to sue.

Deepfake technology, which is increasingly capable of creating realistic digital forgeries, has been used to falsely portray public figures and politicians in problematic ways. It has also been used to torment teenagers whose classmates use online tools to make pornography forgeries featuring their likenesses.

“Victims of sexually-explicit deepfakes are experiencing real trauma as a result of this abuse – we have a responsibility to put a stop to it,” Gong-Gershowitz said following House passage of the bill.

According to an estimate from the Amsterdam-based deepfake-detection company Sensity that was cited in a news report earlier this year, 96 percent of deepfakes on the internet are sexually explicit content depicting women without their consent, mostly celebrities.

In October, President Joe Biden issued an executive order requiring new standards for AI system safety, trustworthiness and security.

The organ was issued months after Gong-Gershowitz and Edly-Allen visited the White House to talk about ways to fight hate and abuse online, according to a statement from the Libertyville Democrat.

“We need to balance rapidly progressing technology that maximizes artificial intelligence possibilities while also protecting against the potential harms it can cause,” Edly-Allen said.

“We are starting to see how unrestricted technology can do harm without practical safeguards in place," added. "I applaud the Biden administration for taking urgent action to work toward ending the exploitation, humiliation and harassment that AI has caused.”

Related: Mom, Daughter Push For Change After AI Porn Spread At School