HARRISBURG – Attorney General Dave Sunday is co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 47 Attorneys General in calling on major online search engine and payment platform companies to do more to stop the spread of computer-generated “deepfakes.”
Nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII), commonly referred to as “deepfakes” and “revenge porn,” is pervasive online and easily accessible, causing harm to the individuals depicted in the images and videos and to young people exposed to the content.
The Attorneys General sent letters to major search engine companies – like Google and Bing – outlining their failures to limit the creation and accessibility of image-based sexual abuse material. The letter demands stronger safeguards, such as warnings and redirects, to better protect the public, especially impressionable youth.
In separate letters to online payment platform companies, the coalition asks for bolder action to protect the public by identifying and removing payment authorizations for any deepfake nonconsensual sexual imagery.
“The rise of artificial intelligence has unfortunately enabled the widespread dissemination of deepfakes and other illicit digital content that has a direct impact on the mental health and wellbeing of Pennsylvanians, particularly our young people,” Attorney General Dave Sunday said. “And the reality is these mega search engine companies and pay apps are reaping profits from the existence of this despicable and dehumanizing content. It is time those companies are accountable for their complicity in this content being so rampantly available online.”
The spread of computer-generated NCII poses significant harm to the public, particularly women and girls who are most often targeted and victimized by it. It has increasingly been used to embarrass, intimidate, and exploit people around the world, including notable cases involving celebrities like Taylor Swift, as well as school-aged young people in the United States and worldwide.
In their letters, the coalition points to existing industry practices that limits access to harmful search content, such as “how to build a bomb” and “how to kill yourself.” The Attorneys General urged these companies to adopt similar measures for searches such related to deepfakes.
The coalition also urged payment platform companies to deny sellers the ability to use their services when they learn of connections to deepfake NCII creation tools and content, and remove those sellers from their network.
Attorney General Sunday co-sponsored these bipartisan letters along with Kentucky Attorney General Coleman, Massachusetts Attorney General Campbell, New Jersey Attorney General Platkin, and Utah Attorney General Brown. The letters were authored by Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark. Joining the sponsors are the Attorneys General of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virgina, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Copies of the coalition’s letters are available here.
# # #