ACT welcomes Te Pāti Māori support for bill to stop deepfake harm

ACT MP Laura McClure has welcomed Te Pāti Māori’s formal support for her Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill, and is calling on other parties to do the same so the bill can skip Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ ballot and proceed straight to debate.

“It’s not often you see ACT and Te Pāti Māori agree, but Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke has worked constructively with me on this issue and clearly cares strongly about it,” said McClure.

“Sexually explicit deepfakes are a growing form of digital abuse, enabled by rapid advancements in AI technology. They are shockingly easy to create and can cause devastating psychological and reputational harm.

“My Bill closes a gap in the law by amending the Crimes Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act to ensure synthetic sexual images are treated the same as non-consensual intimate recordings. It would make it explicitly illegal to create and share these images and videos that depict a person in intimate contexts without their consent.

“Member’s Bills can sit in the ballot waiting to be drawn for months or even years. I’m calling on other MPs to recognise the urgency of this issue and formally notify their support so we can get this bill on Parliament’s agenda without delay.

“As a mother, I find the idea that someone could steal your likeness and generate pornography with it absolutely horrifying. This happening right now to people across New Zealand, including those still at school. If we don't act now, this abuse will only become more prevalent.

“Some have tried to argue that the current law is sufficient. I challenge those people to speak to a young person affected by this, or to the teachers and principals who see this happening regularly with no real legal avenues available to them. No one has been prosecuted for publishing an intimate visual recording so far this year – yet we know the problem is widespread.

“Netsafe say they receive complaints daily from people whose images have been weaponised to create sexually explicit deepfake abuse. This change would give victims the confidence to go to police, knowing the law will back them and that offenders can be prosecuted and convicted.

“Every day, this technology is becoming more powerful and more widespread. We must act now before even more victims are created.”

Notes to editors:

• The Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill can be read here.