Paris Hilton joins forces with AOC to push for new law banning non-consensual AI-generated pornography
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has teamed up with celebrity Paris Hilton to once again push her bill to restrict non-consensual deepfake pornography created by artificial intelligence.
Ocasio-Cortez and Hilton held a press conference with Ocasio-Cortez’s Republican co-sponsor, Florida Rep. Laurel Lee.
The legislation, called the DEFIANCE Act, would create a legal cause of action for people who are the subject of deepfake AI porn created without their consent.
“Since the public release of AI tools, we have seen an absolute explosion of AI-generated images used to sexually abuse victims and children,” he said, noting that the vast majority of AI-generated deepfakes are non-consensual pornography.
“Like many others here, I have spoken out about our experiences being targeted by AI deepfake pornography,” he said. “This is not just a coalition of legislators, but a coalition of survivors of sexual harassment and, in some cases, harassment and assault.”
Paris Hilton, left, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a bipartisan press conference in support of the Defiance Act (AP)
The legislation passed the Senate unanimously earlier this month, with Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, R.S.C., in charge. House Speaker Mike Johnson also stood behind the legislation.
Hilton, on the other hand, stated how deepfake AI pornography is similar to the leak of a video of herself having sex when she was 19 in the 2000s.
“People called it scandalous,” Hilton told reporters. “It wasn’t. It was abuse. There were no laws to protect me then. There weren’t even words to describe what was done to me.”
Hilton said women and girls faced conditions that were much worse than what they experienced at the time.
The legislation would create a civil cause of action for people who are the subjects of deepfake AI porn created without their consent ((Photo: Heather Diehl/Getty Images))
“Before someone betrays your trust and you have to steal something real,” he said. “Now all it takes is a computer and a stranger’s imagination.”
Hilton said there are more than 100,000 deepfake images on the internet. Ocasio-Cortez also talked about being a victim of deepfake AI porn.
But the proposed legislation has stalled in the past. It passed the Senate unanimously in 2024 before the end of the last Congress.
Hilton spoke of her own experience after an explicit tape of herself was leaked: ‘People called it a scandal. It wasn’t. ‘This was abuse’ (AP)
Ocasio-Cortez said she spoke with Johnson about the legislation and told reporters they faced limited time in the last Congress.
The press conference featured advocates and other survivors, as well as other female lawmakers 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.
Proposed legislation has bipartisan support (Getty Images)
Luna and Ocasio-Cortez have also worked on other legislation, such as 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 said. IndependentHe said Ocasio-Cortez is doing it the same way Luna did it for Republicans.
Still, Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t tried to get a big chunk of the legislation.
“I think we all worked very well together on this, I think it was as a team and not about the individual loan,” he said. “I think bipartisanship is extremely important. Of course, Republicans hold the majority in the House of Representatives.”
However, the press conference could not prevent the ongoing fights in the House of Representatives.
Mace, perhaps the loudest anti-trans voice in Congress, posted a video of Rep. Sarah McBride, the first transgender person elected to Congress, saying McBride “doesn’t belong here and will never be one of us.”
