Senate Sends Bill Establishing Penalties for Revenge Porn to Carney

The Senate unanimously passed House Bill 353 on Thursday. The bill would provide civil and criminal remedies for people whose likeness has been used in deepfakes that depict nudity, sexual conduct or other intimate images without their consent. The bill now goes to Governor Carney for his signature.

While deepfake pornography largely entered the public lexicon after deepfake images of Taylor Swift were widely circulated on the internet in early 2024, several states have already passed laws specifically aimed at helping victims of deepfakes involving sexual imagery created without their consent seek justice.

HB 353 would make the intentional creation and distribution of deepfake pornography subject to the same criminal remedies currently available under the Delaware Uniform Civil Remedies for Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act, as well as a Class A misdemeanor violation of privacy offense. An adult who creates a deepfake depiction of a minor also would be subject to a felony under HB 353.

HOUSE BILL 353 – CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR DISCLOSURE OF SEXUAL DEEPFAKES/REVENGE PORN	Currrent Status – House Passed 35-0-6. Senate Passed 21-0. Sent to Governor Carney.
House Sponsors – Griffith, Bush, Dorsey Walker, Heffernan, Johnson, Longhurst, Osienski, Phillips, Harris	Senate Sponsors – Hansen, Mantzavinos, Hoffner, Pettyjohn, Poore, Sokola, Sturegeon
House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Lambert Longhurst Minor-Brown Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Collins Dukes Gray Hensley Hilovsky Jones-Giltner, Morris Postles Ramone Short Shupe Spiegelman Yearick Vanderwende	Senate Yes Votes – Brown Gay Hansen Hoffner Huxtable Lockman Mantzavinos McBride Paradee Pinkney Poore Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh // Buckson Hocker Lawson Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson
House No Votes – Heffernan, Johnson, Lynn, Matthews, Smith, Moore	Senate No Votes –
House Absents or Not Voting –	Senate Absent or Not Voting –

“I want to thank Rep. Griffith for her leadership on this issue and my colleagues in the Senate for voting today to support these critical protections for Delawareans who are victimized by this new technology,” Sen. Hansen said. “Having this law on the books will give our neighbors the power to seek justice against those who use these powerful, new tools to create pornography that humiliates and degrades others for their own entertainment, profit or sinister purposes.”