AOC and Paris Hilton back bill to let victims sue over AI deepfake pornography

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and entrepreneur Paris Hilton appeared together on Capitol Hill to promote legislation aimed at curbing one of the fastest-growing harms associated with generative AI: non-consensual deepfake pornography.

The effort, reported in late January 2026, centers on the DEFIANCE Act, a bipartisan proposal that would create a clearer path for victims to sue people who create or distribute explicit AI-generated images and videos without consent. Supporters argue that current legal tools do not consistently match the speed and scale of synthetic-media abuse, particularly when content spreads across platforms in hours.

Backers of the bill frame it as a victim-centered response: rather than relying solely on platform moderation or criminal prosecutions that may be uneven across jurisdictions, the law would empower individuals with a civil right of action to seek damages and other remedies.

At the event, Hilton connected the issue to her own experiences with privacy violations earlier in her life, arguing that technology has made a longstanding problem easier to reproduce and harder to contain. Ocasio-Cortez emphasized that digital sexual abuse can translate into real-world harms, including intimidation, reputational damage, and lasting psychological distress.

The renewed push comes amid heightened scrutiny of AI tools that can generate realistic imagery with minimal effort. Recent controversies around image-generation systems producing sexualized outputs have intensified calls for legal standards that clearly assign liability to creators and distributors of abusive content, not just platforms that host it.

Supporters say the proposal is designed to complement earlier measures that focus on content removal obligations. The broader legislative landscape reflects a growing consensus that synthetic media requires distinct rules—both because manipulated content can be created anonymously and because it can be replicated indefinitely once released.

Opponents and civil-liberties advocates typically warn that poorly defined standards could chill legitimate speech or be misused in disputes over satire, journalism, or art. Bill sponsors say carve-outs and careful drafting are necessary to target clearly non-consensual sexual exploitation while preserving protected expression.

If advanced, the DEFIANCE Act would represent another step in Washington’s evolving attempt to align legal frameworks with the capabilities of modern AI systems—especially as deepfake tools become cheaper, more accessible, and more convincing.