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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I rise today in the Senate to pass the DEFIANCE Act, a bipartisan bill that provides a remedy for victims of nonconsensual sexual exploitation deepfakes.

I want to thank the Senate cosponsors of this legislation. They include my ranking Republican Member, Senator Lindsey Graham, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, as well as Senators Klobuchar, Hawley, King, and Lee. This bill is truly bipartisan.

I have been proud to partner with New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced this legislation in the House of Representatives with four Republican and four Democratic cosponsors. As you can see, in both the Senate and the House, this is a bipartisan measure. When I describe it, you will understand.

Sadly, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, herself, is a victim of what is known as explicit deepfakes. I commend her for her work and courage to create tools for victims in the fight against this despicable conduct.

The spread of these deplorable deepfakes is like a fire burning out of control. What used to take extraordinary technological expertise and a lot of time can now be done with the push of a button. Countless apps can swap someone's face onto another person's body or can digitally remove someone's clothing. These apps are often advertised as harmless entertainment. But when explicit images are produced and shared without the consent of the person depicted, the harm is very real. The exploitation of young children, the exploitation of women is really the price that is being paid for this.

Imagine losing control over your own likeness and identity. Imagine how powerless victims feel when they cannot remove the illicit content, cannot prevent it from being reproduced, cannot prevent new images from being created. The negative consequences to the victims can be profound. Victims may draw into silence themselves by withdrawing from online spaces and public discourse as a protective measure. They may endure threats to their employment, education, or reputation; or suffer additional criminal activity, such as extortion and stalking. Some experience depression, anxiety, and fear of being in public. And in the worst-case scenario, victims are driven to suicide.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez recently described her own reaction to being depicted in sexual deepfakes without her consent. She said: ``There's a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone could think are real.'' She described how it resurfaced trauma and haunts her thoughts. Once deepfakes are seen, they cannot be unseen. As she put it, ``deepfakes are . . . a way of digitizing violent humiliation against other people.''

Prominent women are often the target of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes--singers, actors, politicians alike. You cannot escape the conclusion that these images are intended to diminish and shame women.

But, sadly, the victims can be anyone. There are many distressing reports this year of middle schools and high schools struggling to respond to the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes of students.

In March of this year, at least 22 students at the Richmond-Burton High School, in McHenry County, in my home State of Illinois, learned they were depicted in deepfakes circulating online. One of the images was a doctored version of a photo of two female students taken at the school prom. The perpetrator digitally removed their clothes to make it appear they were unclothed. The prom is supposed to be a joyous rite of passage for teenagers, a happy memory they keep for the rest of their lives. Now that memory has been stolen from these two young women.

Sadly, we are seeing an explosion of images like these. One researcher found that the number of nonconsensual pornographic deepfake videos available online has increased ninefold in the last 5 years. Such videos have been viewed almost 4 billion times--4 billion times.

Monthly traffic to the top 20 deepfake sites increased by 285 percent from July 2020 to July 2023, and search engines directed 25.2 million visits to the top five most popular deepfake sites in July 2023 alone.

Tragically, under the law now, the victims have no legal remedy. Time and again, victims are told nothing can be done to help them because existing laws simply do not apply to deepfakes. This is not just a gap in the law. It is an omission that shows a blatant disregard for the trauma to children, women, and girls who are victimized by this crime.

But this DEFIANCE Act will change that. It will give the victims a day in court. Once this bill is signed into law, victims finally will have the ability to hold civilly liable those who produce, disclose, solicit, or possess sexually explicit deepfakes while knowingly or recklessly disregarding that the person depicted did not consent to the conduct.

I am proud to have collaborated with survivor advocates on this bill. Their lived experience and leadership have shaped this bill. This bill was carefully crafted to comply with the First Amendment.

As the Center for Democracy and Technology wrote in their letter endorsing the bill, it is constitutional because it addresses ``a uniquely compelling problem with a narrowly-tailored solution.''

In addition to the CDT, the DEFIANCE Act is supported by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the Sexual Violence Prevention Association, the National Women's Law Center, My Image My Choice, PACT, Rights4Girls, and many others.

Congress has waited too long to act. Can you imagine, in your own family, if it was your wife, your daughter, your niece, or some young woman that you love who was exploited this way, who had to see these images and try to erase them from their minds, who realize that they have no power now under the law, no power to protect themselves? They are helplessly exploited and their lives have been changed for the worse.

We waited far too long to act. This is a bipartisan measure in both the House and the Senate. It is past time to give victims of nonconsensual sexual exploitation and explicit deepfakes the tools they need to fight back.

3696, the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images And Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask consent that the Durbin-Grassley substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I am disappointed, seriously disappointed. When we talk about these young women and young children being exploited and have bipartisan legislation before both the House and Senate to deal with it, it is important that it be characterized properly.

First, there is no liability under this proposed law for tech platforms, despite what the Senator from Wyoming said.

And, secondly, the idea that the people would suffer with civil liability here, when they didn't know what was going on--listen to the language of this bill: The victims have the ability to hold civilly liable those who produce, disclose, solicit, possess sexually explicit deepfakes while knowingly--while knowingly--or recklessly disregarding that the person depicted did not consent to the conduct.

The two major issues raised by the Senator from Wyoming are both addressed in this bipartisan measure.

There are people who will shake their heads and say: Can't the Senate even address this issue of the sexual exploitation of children and young girls and attempts to ruin their lives? Can't they even agree on a bipartisan basis to come up with an answer?

We did. We have a bill that does it, and it has been stopped.

We are not going to stop our efforts, Madam President. This is a cause worth fighting for, and we are going to really appeal to those across America who believe as we do.

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