A bill penned by an Eastern Wisconsin Senator has started its journey to the governor’s desk.
The bill, written by De Pere Senator Andre Jacque, aims to give stronger legal protections for those who have been victimized by deep fake pornography.
Deepfake videos are synthetic media that have been digitally manipulated to make it appear as though someone, typically a celebrity, is doing something they never did.
In many cases related to pornography, technology is used to superimpose someone’s face on someone engaging in sexual activity. Bloomberg created a great video on the topic, which can be seen on YouTube.
Sen. Jacque cited a study that showed that around 96% of deep fake material is “non-consensual pornography, and ‘exclusively targets and harms women.’”
He explained in a news release that the bill would “strengthen and modernize Wisconsin law by making it a felony to create, store, reproduce, or disseminate sexually explicit deep fakes without the consent of the person who is being depicted. It would also make it a misdemeanor to reproduce sexually explicit ‘private images,’ which are voluntarily taken but not intended to be shared widely.”
The measure recently passed a Senate committee and now goes before the full Senate and the Assembly.
If passed, the bill would then go to Governor Tony Evers’ desk for final approval.
