Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) teamed up with celebrity Paris Hilton to push once again for her bill to restrict nonconsensual deepfake pornography generated by AI.
Ocasio-Cortez and Hilton held a press conference with Ocasio-Cortez’s Republican co-sponsor, Rep. Laurel Lee of Florida.
The legislation, called the DEFIANCE Act, would establish a civil cause of action for individuals who are the subject of deepfake AI porn created without consent.
“Since the public release of AI tools, we have seen an absolute explosion in AI generated images used to sexually harass victims and children,” she said, pointing out how a vast majority of AI-generated deepfakes are nonconsensual pornography.
“I as well as many others here have spoken about our experience being targeted by AI deepfake pornography,” she said. “Not only is this a coalition of legislators, this is a coalition of survivors of sexual harassment and in some cases, abuse and assault.”
The legislation already passed the Senate earlier this month by unanimous consent with Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) leading the charge. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also gotten behind the legislation.
Hilton for her part relayed how similar deepfake AI pornography was to leak of the video of her having sex when she was 19 years old in the 2000s.
“People called it a scandal,” Hilton told reporters. “It wasn’t. It was abuse. There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren’t even words for what had been done to me.”
Hilton said that women and girls face much worse prospects than what she experienced at the time.
“Before someone had to betray your trust and steal something real,” she said. “Now, all it takes is a computer and a stranger’s imagination.”
Hilton said that more than 100,000 deepfake images of her exist online. Ocasio-Cortez has also spoken about being a victim of deepfake AI porn.
But the proposed legislation has stalled in the past. In 2024, it passed the Senate by unanimous consent as well before the end of the last Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez has said that she has spoken with Johnson about the legislation and told reporters that they were running up against limited time in the last Congress.
The press conference included advocates and other survivors as well as other female legislators from both parties, including MAGA members such as Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Claudia Tenney of New York and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Luna and Ocasio-Cortez have also worked on other legislation including banning members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks and capping credit card interest at 10 percent, a proposal supported by President Donald Trump.
“I mean, you have to be able to put pressure on your own party,” Luna told The Independent, saying Ocasio-Cortez did so the way that Luna does for Republicans.
Still, Ocasio-Cortez did not try to take major credit for the legislation.
“I think we’ve all worked together very well on this, I don’t think it’s about individual credit but as a team,” she said. “I think bipartisanship has been tremendously important. Of course, Republicans hold the majority in the House.”
But, the press conference could not avoid the ongoing fights in the House of Representatives.
Mace, who is perhaps the loudest anti-trans voice in Congress, posted a video of Rep. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender person elected to Congress, saying McBride “didn’t belong and he will never be one of us.”
