Deepfake crackdown moves closer to House floor

House members file the TAKE IT DOWN Act to curb the spread of deepfakes.

Speaker Pro Tempore Wyman Duggan is prioritizing a crackdown on the increasingly pervasive problem of deepfakes this Session, and his colleagues are behind him.

The House Judiciary Committee has advanced “Brooke’s Law” (HB 1161), named after a teenager from Duggan’s hometown of Jacksonville who was targeted by this troubling technology.

Minor changes in last week’s Industries & Professional Activities Subcommittee led to the legislation becoming a committee substitute.

“Your bill analysis points out that 98% of the deepfake videos found online are explicitly pornographic and 99% of them are featuring women, and that the department of Homeland Security has declared deepfakes and the misuse of synthetic content, a clear and present danger to public health safety and welfare,” Duggan said

“So this bill revises provisions of Florida’s deepfake law to require covered platforms as defined in the bill, to remove altered sexual depictions and copies of such depictions from their platform upon request of the victim.”

The legislation would require internet platforms to develop and prominently promote a policy by the end of 2025 for removing deepfake images and videos of this type after someone is victimized in this way.

Duggan’s bill, which envisions the Florida Unfair Trade and Deceptive Practices Act as its enforcement mechanism, expands on legislation championed by former Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, which imposed criminal and civil penalties by creating law to force sites to take the objectionable image down.

The Senate version of the proposal (SB 1400) by Sen. Alexis Calatayud has already moved through Commerce and Tourism as a committee substitute. That bill has two stops ahead.