Attorney General Dave Sunday is co-leading a bipartisan coalition of 47 Attorneys General urging major online search engine and payment platform companies to take stronger action against the spread of computer-generated “deepfakes.”
Nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII), also referred to as deepfakes or revenge porn, is widely accessible online and poses significant harm to individuals, especially women and young people.
The coalition sent letters to major search engines, including Google and Bing, outlining failures to prevent access to image-based sexual abuse material. The Attorneys General requested safeguards such as warnings and redirects to limit exposure.
Separate letters were sent to online payment platforms, calling for the removal of payment authorizations connected to deepfake NCII content and urging platforms to block sellers of such material.
The Attorneys General cited existing industry practices that restrict access to harmful searches, such as instructions on making explosives or self-harm. They asked companies to adopt similar restrictions for deepfake-related searches.
The letters were co-sponsored by Attorney General Sunday along with Attorneys General Coleman (Kentucky), Campbell (Massachusetts), Platkin (New Jersey), and Brown (Utah). Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark authored the letters.
Attorneys General from 42 additional states and territories also joined, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Copies of the coalition’s letters are available here.
