Interview: Improving Deepfake Policy

Professor Rebecca Delfino

Rebecca Delfino is a law professor and the Director of the Externship Department at LMU Loyola Law School, as well as the author of Pornographic Deepfakes: The Case for Federal Criminalization of Revenge Porn’s Next Tragic Act. To learn more about Professor Delfino, please visit her faculty profile.

Professor Delfino examines how we can leverage our existing legal system to provide better protections and resources to victims of deepfake pornography. In particular, she advocates for empowering victims with the ownership rights to the content that harms them.  

Here are 4 key takeaways from our interview:

1. All state revenge porn laws should encompass deepfakes.

Because deepfake and traditional revenge porn are sexual assault, the same criminalization and legal remedies should exist for both. For example, in Virginia, non consensual deepfake porn now constitutes a Class 1 misdemeanor. 

2. Tort law (civil claims to recover compensation for harm) is expensive and often ineffective. 

Even celebrities eventually stop pursuing legal remedies. A federal response that 1) stops this content, and 2) enforceably removes it is the only way to protect individuals in online spaces, regardless of their means. 

3. The private and public sectors must work together. 

Sloppy use and misbehavior by platform users casts a bad light on all developers. Companies create the technologies as well as the culture surrounding their use; once they make privacy and trust a priority, they can push government policy to protect themselves, and more importantly, their users, from harm. 

4. In-rem laws can transfer the ownership rights from the content creator to the victim. 

In-rem jurisdiction encompasses the court’s power over property. If a victim legally owns all content with her image, she can then shut down any images or videos that appear via existing IP, copyright, and ownership laws. 

How Professor Delfino has influenced our thinking

By providing ownership rights of the audio-visual media to the victim, Professor Delfino’s proposal empowers victims to take control of the content, have a fighting chance at internet-wide removal, and begin to reclaim their digital likeness. 

To help support this legal effort, DeepTrust Alliance unites a group of diverse stakeholders, including technologists building systems and standards for recording ownership, companies supporting simplified cross site takedown, and financiers focused on stopping the underlying incentives of pornographic deepfakes and disinformation. 

Collaboration is our most powerful tool to create these essential policy solutions. To read DTA’s policy proposals and rationales, stay tuned for our upcoming solution paper.