New York Deepfake Porn Lawyer
Deepfake Porn involves allegations involves the dissemination or publication of an image or video that realistically depicts a person’s face on pornographic content where the person appears to be engaging in sexual conduct that never happened. AI is often used to create the realistic depiction of the person’s face on pornographic.
New York’s Deepfake Porn law is found in Civil Rights Law § 52-c. Like Revenge Porn, Deepfake Porn is a form of nonconsensual pornography. The difference between Deepfake Porn and Revenge Porn is that deepfakes involve the digitization of a person who was not nude or participating in a sexual act. Whereas Revenge Porn involves the actual image of a person.
A common Deepfake Porn case typically involves a fake sexual image or video of a person that is uploaded to a well-known porn site or posted on social media. However, unlike Revenge Porn, which usually involves an ex-intimate partner, the person who commits Deepfake Porn can by a stranger to the victim.
One issue related to Deepfake Porn is known as Sextortion. Sextortion may arise when a person threatens to share a Deepfake Porn of a person and demands money in return for not sharing the Deepfake Porn of the person.
What Every Victim of Deepfake Porn Should Do Immediately
New York Deepfake Porn Lawyer
If you are a victim of Deepfake Porn, as painful as an experience as that is, it is important to preserve the evidence. If the video has been posted to a website, then it is important to preserve the URL or website address, which begins with “http://.” The simplest way to preserve evidence of Deepfake Porn is by taking screenshots or screen recordings of the video or images. Collecting evidence in cases in Deepfake Porn is crucial to pursuing a lawsuit for the Unlawful Dissemination or Publication of a Sexually Explicit Depiction of an Individual.
New York’s Deepfake Porn Law
States are beginning to act to curb Deepfake Porn by passing legislation enabling lawsuits and, in some cases, criminal charges. New York’s Deepfake Porn Law was passed in 2020. Under New York Civil Rights Law 52-c:
A depicted individual shall have a cause of action against a person who, discloses, disseminates or publishes sexually explicit material related to the depicted individual, and the person knows or reasonably should have known the depicted individual in that material did not consent to its creation, disclosure, dissemination, or publication.
The following definitions apply to New York’s Deepfake Porn Law:
- Depicted individual means an individual who appears, as a result of digitization, to be giving a performance they did not actually perform or to be performing in a performance that was actually performed by the depicted individual but was subsequently altered to be in violation of this section.
- Digitization means to realistically depict the nude body parts of another human being as the nude body parts of the depicted individual, computer-generated nude body parts as the nude body parts of the depicted individual or the depicted individual engaging in sexual conduct, as defined in subdivision ten of section 130.00 of the Penal Law, in which the depicted individual did not engage.
- Sexually explicit material means any portion of an audio-visual work that shows the depicted individual performing in the nude, meaning with an unclothed or exposed intimate part, as defined in section 245.15 of the Penal Law, or appearing to engage in, or being subjected to, sexual conduct, as defined in subdivision 10 of section 130.00 of the Penal Law.
Deepfake Porn Lawsuits in New York
In New York, the Private Right of Action For U Unlawful Dissemination or Publication of a Sexually Explicit Depiction of an Individual under Civil Rights Law Section 52-c, allows a person to sue for several types of damages including:
- Compensatory and punitive damages;
- Injunctive and declaratory relief; and
- Attorney’s fees and costs.
The deadline to file a lawsuit under for Deepfake Porn under New York Civil Rights Law Section 52-c is either 3 years after the dissemination or publication of the deepfake porn, or 1 year from the date a person discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, the dissemination or publication of the deepfake porn.
New York Deepfake Porn Criminal Charges
In 2023, New York updated its criminal Revenge Porn laws to criminalize the dissemination or publication of Deepfake Porn. As of December 1, 2023, under Penal Law Section 245.15 it a class a misdemeanor to commit the crime of Unlawful Dissemination or Publication of an Intimate Image. The New York Deepfake Porn Crime now bans the dissemination or publication of “an image created or altered by digitization, where such person may reasonably be identified from the still or video image itself or from information displayed in connection with the still or video image.” Under Penal Law Law Section 245.15 “digitization” means “to alter an image in a realistic manner utilizing an image or images of a person, other than the person depicted, or computer generated images. New York’s Deepfake Porn charges are punished by up to one year in jail.
Contact The Law Firm of Andrew M. Stengel
Contact us via the live chat below, through our contact form here, or call us at (212) 634-9222. Case consultations are free and confidential, and you will speak with Andrew M. Stengel directly.
Our offices are located at 11 Broadway, Suite 715, New York, NY 10004, and we handle cases throughout New York City, Nassau, Westchester and throughout New York State.
