Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, has sent a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, demanding details on the platform’s plans to combat nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes. Durbin’s letter, exclusively shared with NBC News, highlights the alarming presence of such material on Google’s search results, Google Play app store, and YouTube.
Deepfakes, deceptive digital media generated or altered using artificial intelligence, have become a growing concern. Of particular concern are deepfakes featuring the faces of women and girls “swapped” into pornographic content, often victimizing celebrities and even schoolgirls worldwide. Durbin emphasizes that Google’s search results drive users to apps that produce nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes, while Google Play hosts tools used to create such material. Additionally, YouTube hosts tutorials on creating nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes.
Durbin’s letter acknowledges Alphabet’s recent limited efforts to address these issues but calls for more aggressive action. The senator has been at the forefront of legislative efforts against nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes, proposing the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024 (the DEFIANCE Act). This legislation aims to provide a legal pathway for deepfake victims to sue creators and distributors of such material.
Durbin’s letter references independent researcher Genevieve Oh’s data, which reveals a ninefold increase in nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake videos uploaded online since 2019, with nearly four billion views. The majority of these videos depict women with prominent public-facing careers, according to Durbin.
Highlighting the lasting harm inflicted on victims, Durbin criticizes Google’s practice of placing the burden on harmed individuals to police the material by filling out takedown forms for search results. The senator deems this approach insufficient and requests information from Alphabet by June 28. Durbin seeks details on steps Google is taking to remove URLs directing to nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes from search results and how Google Play enforces its terms of service against deepfake creation apps.