A bill that would outlaw nonconsensual deepfake sexual depictions received support during a Guam legislative hearing on Wednesday.
Bill 171-38 would prohibit the creation, possession, disclosure or threatened disclosure of nonconsensual intimate depictions, whether those depictions were authentic or created using technology.
The bill was introduced by Sens. William Parkinson and Shelly Calvo. Parkinson said it is a response to danger that didn’t exist a few years ago.
“Advances in artificial intelligence now allow bad actors to take an innocent photo, often pulled from social media, and turn it into pornographic images that look horrifyingly real,” Parkinson said. “These images are then shared, traded and used for extortion, and though the image may be fake, the trauma is absolutely real.”
Jayne Flores, director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs, testified that the bill closes a loophole “that unsavory characters might try to use in order to claim that, quote, no harm was actually done to a person in creating and or disseminating such digitally created images.”
Flores said deepfake sexual images, which are made using artificial intelligence software, can inflict psychological damage to a person “whose reputation is tainted or threatened by dissemination of these so-called deepfake images, or who may be blackmailed by such created images.”
The bill designates the crime of “nonconsensual image depiction” as a third-degree felony.
If the person depicted is a minor, the offense is committed for financial gain, in the course of extortion, or against five or more separate people, it would be a second-degree felony.
If the depiction is used to facilitate, conceal or commit another felony, it would be a first-degree felony.
