Sharing pornographic deepfakes to be illegal in England and Wales

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The BBC is reporting that sharing pornographic deepfakes without consent will become a crime.

The legislation is set to be part of the controversial Online Safety Bill.

A government spokesperson says there are growing global concerns about technology being used to create fake pornographic images and video, one website which creates nudes from a clothed image received 38 million visits last year.

The Online Safety Bill is set to conclude the report stage on December 5th. The bill had previously been delayed in government.  Passing the report stage does not pass the bill into law, merely another step on it’s journey.  It would also be subject to change and amendments.   The bill has attracted a number of criticisms from many quarters due to it’s potential impact on free speech.  At SNAP we are concerned about it’s impact on sex workers in general.  The ECP have a good article about that here.

A full link to the BBC story can be found here.