It is already illegal in England and Wales to share explicit deepfakes without the subject’s consent, with perpetrators facing jail time. Last year, changes to the Online Safety Act already criminalized the sharing of deepfake sexual images in England and Wales. The new offense applies only to adults as, under existing English and Welsh rules, creating deepfake sexual images of minors is already a crime. The creation of deepfakes has included super-imposing women’s faces, without their consent, onto sexually explicit images. A directive criminalizing the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes has also been proposed in the European Union.

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Persons: Laura Farris, “, Bill, deepfakes, Taylor Swift, Farris, —, Helle Thorning, Schmidt Organizations: London CNN, United Kingdom’s, ITV, Criminal, European Union, Facebook Locations: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, United States, India