House OKs Knight bill prohibiting deepfake sexual exploitation

State House – The House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Jason Knight to update the state’s “revenge porn” law to include content generated using artificial intelligence to impose a person’s likeness onto sexually explicit material.

The existing statute, adopted in 2018, prohibited unauthorized dissemination of sexually explicit images of another person. Representative Knight’s legislation (2024-H 7101) expands it to apply to images created by a digital device or altered by digitization, often referred to as deepfakes.

“Victims of technically enabled sexual exploitation have no involvement in the making of any of this material and of course, gave no consent. Once the images are shared, there’s no way to take them back, so the harm is permanent. Celebrities and politicians have been targeted by this practice for several years, and now the technology is so widely available that average citizens are also being victimized,” said Representative Knight (D-Dist. 67, Barrington, Warren). “Without question, deepfake porn is a heinous criminal act, and it should be subject to the laws that prohibit the distribution of sexually exploitative material.”

At least 12 other states have enacted laws prohibiting technically enabled sexual exploitation, including New York, whose law Representative Knight used as a source for the text in his bill. Earlier this month, Google updated its ad policy to prohibit ads promoting services that could be used to create deepfake pornography.

The legislation now goes to the Senate.