A bill making it illegal to post “intimate” deep fakes online passed in the Tennessee House on April 21 as former NewsChannel 5 meteorologist Bree Smith — a deep fake victim and the main driver of the legislation — looked on with her family.
“I am a flood of emotions,” Smith posted on Facebook. “I’m most proud of the fact that my boys were with me … that they got to see first hand that justice is possible.”
Smith testified before a state House committee in March that someone had posted a video of her face on someone else’s “semi-nude body” online. She also said there were numerous imposters on social media who were tricking her fans into sending money to the imposters.
Bree Smith demands action from lawmakers over AI deepfake videos in powerful testimony
“Discovering these imposter accounts and seeing the degrading fake images and videos was devastating to me,” she testified.
The bill, the Preventing Deep Fake Images Act, passed the House with no opposition April 21, about a week after the Senate passed the bill 32-0.
“…wrongs can be made right. Pain can be transformed into purpose,” Smith posted. “Our voices and our stories have power and when we use them well, we can change the world.”
The bill makes it a felony “to disclose or threaten to disclose or solicit the disclosure of an intimate digital depiction with the intent to harass, annoy, threaten, alarm, or cause substantial harm to the finances or reputation of the depicted individual.”
The bill also lets people sue and recover financial damages from those who post pictures or videos of “intimate digital depiction … without the consent of the individual” or those who “recklessly disregards whether the individual has not consented to such disclosure.”
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or at 615-259-8384.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Bree Smith-inspired bill battling online deep fakes passed in legislature