Paris Hilton is speaking out once again against artificial intelligence-generated deepfake pornography, revealing the staggering scale of the problem she personally faces. The actor, reality star, and billionaire heiress shared a video on social media on Tuesday featuring clips from her speech at the Capitol earlier this year, alongside a new testimony backing the Defiance Act, a bill that aims to give survivors of AI-generated non-consensual imagery a legal remedy.
What Paris Hilton said about the deepfake images
In the video, Hilton is seen speaking at the Capitol, delivering a stark and personal account of the issue. “I know today that there are over 100,000 explicit deepfake images of me made by AI. Not one of them is real, not one of them is consensual,” she said.Hilton also drew a direct line between the current crisis and her own painful history. More than two decades ago, a sex tape featuring her and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked online without her consent. She later sued the company that released it for $30 million for violation of privacy and emotional distress. Referring to that experience, she said, “They sold my pain for clicks, and then they told me to be quiet, to move on, to even be grateful for the attention.”She went on to connect her fight to her role as a mother. “Too many women are afraid to exist online or sometimes to exist at all. Now, I have a daughter. She is just two and a half years old, and I would go to the ends of the earth to protect her. But I can’t protect her from this. Not yet. And that’s why I am here. I am Paris Hilton, a woman, a wife, a mom, a survivor, and what was done to me was wrong. I will keep telling the truth to protect every woman, every girl, every survivor now and for the future.“In a separate video, Hilton also reiterated her support for the legislation. “This act would make it so that victims can go into court and sue because there is no law to regulate it now. I want my children to be in a world that is safe, so I’m gonna do everything in my power to help make that happen,” she said.
What is the Defiance Act, and why does it matter
The Defiance Act, formally known as the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, is a bipartisan federal bill spearheaded by House Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Laurel Lee. The legislation would grant victims of non-consensual deepfake pornography and intimate digital forgeries the right to take civil action against perpetrators.Hilton had joined both representatives at the Capitol in Washington DC in January to lend her support to the bill in person. Speaking at the time, Ocasio-Cortez noted that the legislation was critical because “we have seen an absolute explosion in AI-generated images used to sexually harass victims and children.”As one of the most recognisable figures to publicly champion the cause, Hilton’s continued advocacy has helped bring significant attention to a legislative effort that supporters say is long overdue.
