Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are toughening up their approaches to policing the proliferation of deepfake intimate images online.
In the U.S., federal prosectors secured a conviction an Ohio man for creating deepfake images involving minors under the Take It Down Act passed in 2025. This month, two men in New York were separately charged under the same law of creating thousands of AI-generated pornographic images of female celebrities, elected officials and private individuals known to the accused.
The New York charges were filed on May 19th, the one-year anniversary of the Take It Down Act’s signing by President Trump. It was also the date by which online platforms are required under the law to have implemented removal processes for flagged nonconsensual intimate imagery. One day later, the Federal Trade Commission sent letters to 12 major tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, TikTok and X, warning they are not in compliance with the law’s requirements.
Across the pond in the U.K., meanwhile, industry regulator Ofcom said last week it is updating its code of practice for platforms due to an “urgent need to reduce the spread of intimate image abuse online.” Per the Guardian, the announcement of the new code followed a threatened legal challenge against the regulator by the campaign group End Violence Against Women (EVAW), whose lawyers complained Ofcom was “failing to tackle these sites and failing in its obligations to protect women and girls.”
The new code, which is expected to come into force this fall pending approval by Parliament, will encourage platforms to implement hash-matching technology to detect non-consensual images and block them from circulating further.
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Separately, Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed in February that amendments will be made to the crime and policing bill to also regulate AI chatbots over their support of so-called “nudification” apps, according to an earlier Guardian report. Deepfake nudes and “revenge porn” must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risked being blocked in the UK, Starmer warned, calling it a “national emergency” that the government must confront.
While the EVAW welcomed Ofcom’s announcement, they said the regulator should go further by mandating the use of hash-matching technology, per the Guardian. Of particular concern to the group campaigners are niche online forums where people trade non-AI intimate images taken without consent. The forums often group women by location, such as a town or village or university dorm, creating potentially serious safety risks.
We need to see the regulator take proactive action that has teeth, requiring tech companies to implement preventative measures or face consequences,” EVAW’s head of policy Rebecca Hitchen said.
Added Claire Powell, an attorney for a victim of intimate image abuse, “This is a recommendation rather than the concrete enforcement action that is needed. These forums are already consistently in breach of the Online Safety Act, but this won’t shut them down. Further action by Ofcom is clearly needed.”
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall echoed the calls for mandating the use of technology to combat what she called the “never-ending nightmare” faced by victims of the abuse.
“Existing technology must now be used to put a permanent stop to intimate image abuse, by recognising illegal images and blocking them before they can cause further harm,” she said. “No more excuses.”
