Paris Hilton Urges House Action on DEFIANCE Act Amid Rise of AI Deepfakes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Paris Hilton, the prominent media personality and advocate, has returned to Capitol Hill to champion the DEFIANCE Act, a critical bipartisan bill aimed at empowering victims of non-consensual deepfakes to seek direct legal recourse against those who create or distribute such harmful content. Speaking at a news conference on Thursday alongside Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Laurel Lee (R-FL), Hilton underscored the urgency of the legislation, which has already passed the Senate unanimously and now awaits a crucial vote in the House, especially as rapid advancements in artificial intelligence continue to fuel an epidemic of digital exploitation.

Hilton’s impassioned plea for the bill is deeply personal, rooted in her own traumatic experience from 2003 when an intimate video was leaked without her consent. At the time, she was subjected to widespread public shaming and ridicule, a period she now unequivocally describes as abuse, not a scandal. “There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren’t even words for what had been done to me,” Hilton recounted, highlighting the legal vacuum that left her vulnerable. She emphasized how she was “pilloried in the press, called ‘horny,’ and ‘trashy,’” with media outlets like The Guardian even suggesting the “sex video gives Paris Hilton publicity money can’t buy.” This historical context provides a stark backdrop to the current digital landscape, where AI-generated deepfakes amplify the potential for harm exponentially, affecting millions of women and girls, as Hilton warned.

A Legislative Response to Evolving Digital Abuse

The DEFIANCE Act (Digital Exploitation and Forgery Immunity Against Nonconsensual Exploitation) is designed to fill critical gaps in existing legal frameworks, particularly in the face of rapidly advancing AI technology. While previous legislation, such as the Take It Down Act—championed by former First Lady Melania Trump and signed into law in 2024—instituted criminal penalties for the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery and mandated platforms to remove such content within 48 hours, the DEFIANCE Act goes further. It specifically allows targets of deepfake abuse to initiate civil lawsuits against the creators, distributors, or commissioners of explicit nonconsensual images. This provision is vital, as it enables survivors to recover profits made from the illicit use of their likeness, addressing a booming market for high-quality, life-like sexually explicit deepfake videos.

Representative Ocasio-Cortez articulated the bill’s comprehensive approach, stating, “Take It Down gave us removal, and DEFIANCE will give us recourse and restitution.” This distinction is crucial, as mere content removal, while necessary, often fails to address the profound financial and emotional toll on victims. The DEFIANCE Act aims to provide a path to justice that includes accountability for perpetrators and tangible compensation for survivors. Representative Lee, co-sponsor of the bill, affirmed that the legislation does not raise First Amendment concerns and is compatible with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content.

Bipartisan Support and Personal Testimonies

The push for the DEFIANCE Act exemplifies a rare moment of bipartisan unity on Capitol Hill, bringing together women lawmakers from across the political spectrum. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, and Laurel Lee, a Florida Republican, have spearheaded the effort, with support from a diverse group including progressive Democrats like Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Claudia Tenney, Nancy Mace, and Marianette Miller-Meeks. This broad coalition underscores the shared recognition of the severe and non-partisan nature of deepfake abuse.

The urgency of the bill was further highlighted by the testimony of Francesca Mani, a 17-year-old survivor of deepfake abuse. Mani powerfully emphasized the need for consequences that truly deter perpetrators. “DEFIANCE adds consequences that hit where it hurts. If ethics aren’t in your heart, self-preservation should be,” she stated, urging Congress to act swiftly. “It’s not cool or comfortable in jail and to Congress: pass this now, please, no more waiting while tech outpaces justice.” Her words resonated with Hilton’s own experience of feeling unprotected and unheard in the aftermath of her exploitation, bridging the two-decade gap in the fight against digital sexual abuse.

The AI Epidemic: Grok and the Growing Threat

The revival of the DEFIANCE Act gains particular resonance amid recent controversies surrounding AI-generated deepfakes. Reporting from The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate revealed that Grok, the AI chatbot integrated into social platform X, was used to create and disseminate over 1.8 million sexualized images of women and children over just nine days in December. Despite X’s claims of implementing guardrails, users have consistently found ways to bypass these restrictions, illustrating the profound challenge of controlling the spread of harmful AI content.

While none of the speakers at the news conference explicitly named Grok or X, the underlying threat of AI-driven exploitation was a central theme. Representative Ocasio-Cortez herself has been a target of nonconsensual explicit deepfakes generated by users asking Grok to create images of her in January. “As a survivor of sexual assault myself, this resurfaces trauma for so many people across the country, and that is what it is intended to do,” she stated, drawing a direct parallel between digital exploitation and physical assault, both rooted in power, domination, and humiliation. She warned of the devastating real-world consequences, including job loss, school changes for teenagers, and even loss of life, asserting that Congress has a “moral obligation to stop this harm.”

This is not Paris Hilton’s first foray into legislative advocacy. Last year, her testimony regarding her experiences as a survivor of the “troubled teen” industry was instrumental in the passage of the Stop Institutional Abuse Act. Her continued commitment to leveraging her platform for legislative change underscores her dedication to protecting vulnerable individuals from systemic abuse. Hilton concluded her remarks by reflecting on the world she wishes to build for her 2-year-old daughter. “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’m here,” she said. “It’s about someone using someone’s likeness to humiliate, silence and strip them of their dignity. But victims deserve more than after-the-fact apologies. We deserve justice.”

The bipartisan momentum behind the DEFIANCE Act, driven by the compelling testimonies of survivors and the escalating threat of AI-generated deepfakes, highlights a growing consensus across the political spectrum that existing legal frameworks are insufficient to address the complexities of digital exploitation, necessitating innovative legislative solutions to ensure accountability and protect individual dignity in the digital age.