Minnesota Senate bill targets websites where users create ‘deepfake’ porn videos

After Molly Kelley discovered her longtime friend uploaded photos from her social media to a website that generated sexually explicit “deepfakes” of her, she stopped going to work in person.

Kelley said she struggled to go out in public and suffered from paranoia that those around her would see the pornographic videos, which were made without her consent.

“Sitting in a meeting with clients or coworkers, I was deeply paranoid that they’d seen it and they’re wondering if it’s me,” Kelley said. “It’s the sword of Damocles over your head.”

Megan Hurley, whose images were used by the same man, said she missed two months of work. Hurley, a massage therapist, was no longer comfortable being at her workplace alone.

Kelley and Hurley, who both knew the man for years, said they were among about 85 women whose likenesses were used to create the pornography. Deepfake images or videos are realistic but fabricated representations of a person that can be difficult to distinguish from actual photos or footage.

But those of them who went to police, Kelley said, received little help. She called the response from law enforcement agencies “inconsistent” and “disheartening.” Kelley said she was instructed by police to politely ask the man to stop.

Now Kelley and Hurley are asking Minnesota lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at the websites that allow users to generate explicit images.

They are supporting legislation offered by Minnesota Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, that would prohibit website operators from allowing users to “nudify” images, altering them to show an artificial representation of a person’s intimate body parts not shown in the original photo.

“It is too easy for one person to use their phone or computer to create convincing, hyper-realistic nonconsensual nudes of you, your friends, your families, your children and your grandchildren,” Hurley said last month during a hearing in the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.

The legislation, which has bipartisan support, would allow individuals harmed by explicit deepfakes to sue for damages and allow the Attorney General’s Office to impose a $500,000 fine per violation of the law.

The bill has not yet received a vote.

In 2023, Minnesota lawmakers passed legislation that prohibits the knowing dissemination of pornographic images generated with deepfake technology. The legislation also restricted use of deepfake technology to influence an election.

Maye Quade said website operators are already violating that law when they transmit the nude image back to the user but that it hasn’t been prosecuted.

Kelley said proving the images were disseminated is difficult.

“It’s asking me to scrape the bottom of the barrel, deepest, grossest parts of the internet to try to find this,” Kelley said.

Maye Quade said she was “horrified” to learn that the 2023 law, which she co-sponsored, didn’t address the issue completely. She said deepfake technology is advancing so quickly that lawmakers wanted something on the books, but this year’s bill targets the website operators that allow the content to be generated in the first place.

“Once somebody has already done it, the harm has been caused,” Maye Quade said, “and we need to make sure that the harm can’t be caused in the first place.”

Maye Quade said companies can and should ensure their artificial intelligence tools can’t be used to create nude images. She noted that Facebook’s AI tool does not allow users to create explicit images.

Sandi Johnson, senior legislative policy counsel for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, applauded Minnesota lawmakers for “going to the source” and targeting websites that allow users to create graphic deepfakes.

“Once the images are disseminated, it becomes nearly impossible for these victims to get those images removed,” Johnson said, “and so going to the source, going to these people who are specifically creating a product that cashes in on harming victims and preventing those images from being created in the first place, is necessary to protect these victims.”

Johnson said the websites that allow users to create such images advertise on mainstream social media with messages such as “undress any girl you want.”

The legislation, however, could run into a constitutional challenge.

Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, said the U.S. Supreme Court has never allowed government to ban a technology because it could be used for harm.

Kirtley said deepfake technology can be used to create nude depictions that would be protected by the First Amendment if they’re used in parody, art or political commentary.

“All depictions of nudity are not obscene,” Kirtley said. “In fact, many of them are not, and so that means they are protected by the First Amendment.”

Maye Quade’s legislation is among several efforts across the country to crack down on dissemination of explicit images.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sponsored legislation called the Take It Down Act, which would make it a federal crime to publish explicit images without consent. The U.S. Senate passed the legislation, but it has not passed the House of Representatives.

First Lady Melania Trump on Monday lobbied federal lawmakers to pass the legislation, according to the Associated Press, citing the effect having explicit images circulated can have on children.

On Tuesday during his address to Congress, President Donald Trump said he would sign the legislation if it passes the House.

San Francisco last year filed a lawsuit against several sites that allow users to generate explicit images. The case is still ongoing.

Kelley said “anyone who uses the internet is susceptible to being a target.”