Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is leading a bipartisan coalition of 47 attorneys general in calling on major search engines and payment platforms to take stronger action against the spread of computer-generated deepfake nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII), commonly known as “deepfakes.”
In the letter to search engines to search engines, the coalition outlines the companies’ failures and calls for stronger safeguards including warnings and redirecting users away from harmful content. In a separate letter to payment platforms, the coalition urges them to identify and remove payment authorization for deepfake NCII content.
“The darkness on the internet is spreading, and it poses a growing danger to Kentuckians, particularly women and girls. These online deepfakes can lead to emotional distress and long-term damage. Nearly every AG in this country on both sides of the aisle is joining the fight to protect our kids,” said Attorney General Coleman.
Computer-generated NCII has increasingly been used to embarrass, intimidate, and exploit people around the world, including notable cases involving celebrities like Taylor Swift, as well as teenagers in states like Kentucky.
In their letters, the coalition points to existing industry practices including search engines already limiting access to harmful content such as searches for “how to build a bomb” and “how to kill yourself.” The attorneys general urged these companies to adopt similar measures for searches such as “how to make deepfake pornography,” “undress apps,” “nudify apps,” or “deepfake porn.”
The coalition also urged payment platforms to deny sellers the ability to use their services when they learn of connections to deepfake NCII tools and content and remove those sellers from their network.
Attorney General Coleman lead the coalition with attorneys general from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Utah. They were joined by attorneys general from Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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