Minnesota bill would ban creation of nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes and allow attorney general to sue

Senator May Quaid introduced Senate File 1119 on the harm posed by nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes and called witnesses who said the technology had caused lasting trauma. The bill would prohibit creation of hyperreal pornographic deepfakes, require apps, platforms and websites to disable nudity-generation functions, and give the Minnesota attorney general authority to sue companies that allow access — with civil penalties of no less than $500,000 for each allowed access or download, according to testimony.

The bill addresses what witnesses and the sponsor described as a gap in current law. A 2023 Minnesota law already prohibits dissemination of nonconsensual deepfake images and videos, but speakers said that law does not address harms that occur when explicit deepfakes are created in the first place rather than shared. "The act of creation itself is the harm because it happens without consent and knowledge," Molly Kelly told the committee after describing how a longtime acquaintance used widely…