San Francisco tackles nonconsensual deepfakes

Late last week, the San Francisco City Attorney filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the owners of 16 websites that create nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The services use artificial intelligence technology to turn pictures of individuals into realistic-seeming nudes.

About 10 states — including New York and California — have already passed laws offering protections against this kind of sexual abuse material, with a handful of others and the federal government considering similar measures. The US Senate unanimously passed a deepfake porn bill in June that’s currently being considered by the House of Representatives.

The San Francisco suit is the first to target the creators of these tools, many of which are overseas entities. The names of the websites are redacted from the suit, but the targeted companies are based in the United Kingdom and Estonia. The lawsuit alleges violations of state and federal law and seeks to remove public access to these websites as well as civil penalties for the defendants.

“We have to be very clear that this is not innovation — this is sexual abuse,” City Attorney David Chiu said at a press conference last week. “This is a big, multi-faceted problem that we, as a society, need to solve as soon as possible.”