Paris Hilton, the American entertainment icon and entrepreneur, is back in the spotlight. This time, not for her lifestyle or professional ventures, but for her efforts to combat one of the emerging challenges of the digital world: deepfake pornography or AI-generated fake sexual content.
This is a personal battle. Hilton says that at age 19, a private and intimate video of her was released online without her consent and spread rapidly across the internet. Publicly, it was called a “scandal,” but for her, it was a violation of privacy and an assault. At the time, there were neither sufficient laws nor even a term to describe such abuse.
Now, the 43-year-old Hilton, who believes technology now has a far greater capacity to cause harm, has decided to speak out. She claims there are over 100,000 deepfake pornographic images of her face online – fake images that are neither real nor created with her consent.
What is the DEFIANCE Act?
Paris Hilton is joining several U.S. lawmakers, including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Democrat) and Lori Lee (Republican), in backing the DEFIANCE (Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits) Act. This bill, which has been under discussion for months and recently passed the Senate with bipartisan support, now seeks to provide legal recourse for victims of deepfake pornography in the United States.
Under this bill, victims of such fake sexual images and videos would be able to sue the creators, distributors, and those who intentionally publish such content, seeking damages and justice in court. This applies to cases where an individual or individuals have intentionally violated another person’s dignity with the intent to publish such material.
Furthermore, Hilton’s advocacy comes in the wake of another law, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which was passed in 2025 and allows victims to have unauthorized sexual or deepfake content removed from websites and social media platforms. However, while the TAKE IT DOWN Act focuses more on takedowns, the DEFIANCE Act aims to provide victims with legal rights to sue and seek compensation.
Representative Ocasio-Cortez stated regarding this law: “TAKE IT DOWN gave us the power of removal, and DEFIANCE will give us the power of redress and justice.” She emphasized that final passage of this law could empower victims not only to have content removed but also to hold those who caused the harm accountable.
But why is this important?
Paris Hilton has described this phenomenon as the newest form of victimization – a type of digital harassment that can spread rapidly and globally, damaging people’s lives, reputations, mental well-being, and sense of security. She has said that every time one of these fake images surfaces, that “horrible fear comes back… that someone is seeing it and thinking it’s actually real.”
Supporters of the law argue that AI technology is advancing rapidly, and tools for creating deepfakes are becoming widely accessible. Without strong laws, victims are left defenseless against the vast waves of this type of abuse.
Bipartisan Support and Future Outlook
A notable aspect of this legislative effort is the support from both major political parties in the U.S. Both Democrat and Republican representatives have played a role in advancing DEFIANCE as a tool to protect victims, indicating that the issue of sexual deepfakes is no longer just a technological challenge but a national legal and human rights issue.
If this bill is also passed by the House of Representatives and signed into law, it could grant victims of deepfake pornography in the U.S. the legal right to sue, seek damages, and obtain redress – a possibility that has been largely absent in many countries until now.
Euronews