SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Mary Edly-Allen passed a measure through the Senate to crack down on the abusive and harmful use of digital imitations known as “deepfakes.”

“Deepfakes are a way to deploy gender-based violence, harnessing artificial intelligence to exploit, humiliate and harass through the ages-old tactic of stripping women of sexual autonomy and to silence innocent women,” said Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville). “Despite the rise of deepfakes there are no consequences for bad actors.”

House Bill 2123 would create a civil cause of action against any person who knowingly distributes, creates or solicits a digital forgery of another individual without their consent and for the purposes of harassing, extorting, threatening or causing harm to the falsely depicted individual.

“These videos may be fake, but the emotional impacts are real. The sad reality is, deep fake technology is predominately being used to create sexual videos of women without their consent,” Edly-Allen said. “Now is the time to take action to end the disturbing trend of non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NDII)”.

House Bill 2123 passed unanimously out of the Senate on Thursday.