New Bipartisan Bill in the State Legislature Would Make it Illegal to Artificially Generate Sexually Explicit Images

Thursday, October 5th, 2023 -- 3:00 PM

(By Robert D'Andrea, Wisconsin Public Radio) A new bipartisan bill in the state Legislature would make it illegal to artificially generate sexually explicit images without the subject's consent.

According to Robert D'Andrea with Wisconsin Public Radio, the proposed law would make it a felony if the person who creates or shares so-called "deep fake" images does so with the intent to coerce, harass or intimidate the person depicted.

State law already bans creating or publishing non-consensual nude images. This would expand the law to include images where a person’s face or body have been digitally altered.

"It's easier than ever before to take kind of innocuous public domain images and to turn them into something that is intended to mislead, to hurt, to coerce," said Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, who is sponsoring the bill. Reps. Chuck Wichgers, R-Muskego; Jimmy Anderson, D-Fitchburg; and Marisabel Cabrera, D-Milwaukee, are also sponsoring the legislation. 

"People think that they have a certain level of security in sharing pictures of themselves, their family," Jacque said. "The extent to which those images then can be abused, misused by perpetrators to cause them harm is something that we're trying to guard against here."

A study from the cybersecurity company Deeptrace found 96 percent of deep fake material online is non-consensual pornography, almost exclusively targeting women. Jacque said the legislation is designed to make the law catch up with technology.

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