The bipartisan effort has passed the Senate unanimously, and Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Lee hope to get it through the House without delay. Speaking on the Hill, Ocasio-Cortez said: “Out of all deepfake images that AI has generated, over 90% have been nonconsensual, pornographic deepfakes. And out of those images, 90% of them target women…While the images may be digital, the harm to victims is very real. Women lose their jobs when they are targeted with this. Teenagers switch schools. And children lose their lives.”

Ocasio-Cortez herself has been a victim of deepfake AI pornography and credited Congress in passing the Take IT DOWN Act, passed in May 2025, to ensure that harmful content is removed from online platforms. However, she stressed that while the first act grants the power of removal, the DEFIANCE Act is necessary to ensure survivors have access to recourse and restitution.

Hilton’s support of the DEFIANCE Act comes one year after she successfully backed a bill that enacted protections for institutionalised youth, after she opened up about her experiences of abuse at four different residential treatment facilities as a teenager. She has returned to the Capitol to protect future survivors of image-based abuse by creating access to justice that she never got.

“I believed that the worst was behind me, but it wasn’t,” Hilton added, who also shared that there are already over 100,000 explicit deepfake AI images of her. “What happened to me then is happening now to millions of women and girls in a new and more terrifying way. Before, someone had to betray your trust and steal something real. Now all it takes is a computer and a stranger’s imagination.”

If passed, the law would empower survivors to seek justice from creators and distributors of AI deepfake pornography, which would go a long way to protect the one in eight girls becoming victims of deepfake porn in the US. Hilton’s fight may be overseas, but her voice echoes across the pond to every person impacted by image-based sexual abuse in the UK and across the world.

Any law that seeks justice for survivors of deepfake AI pornography and other types of image-based abuse is a win for every campaigner and survivor working to combat this new wave of sexual violence, wherever they are in the world. Every voice is essential in this fight, but the more people like Hilton use their influence for good, the faster we can end this epidemic.

“I had the platform to reclaim my story, but so many others don’t,” Hilton said as she wrapped up her speech on the Hill. “And what I’ve learned is that when your image is violated, it doesn’t disappear. It lives inside you, but so does your power. Telling the truth has helped me heal, and I am so proud that today I stand here without shame.”