Parliament hears call for action on deepfake sexual abuse

On Tuesday, Kirith Entwistle MP led an important Westminster Hall debate on tackling image-based abuse, bringing to light the scale and impact of this devastating form of violence against women and girls.

The debate was well attended, with interventions from eight cross-party MPs and a detailed response from Minister for Victims and VAWG, Alex Davies-Jones.

During the debate, Kirith Entwistle called for action on all five asks from the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW)’s joint campaign with survivor-campaigner Jodie, #NotYourPorn, Professor Clare McGlynn and Glamour UK, calling on the Government to create an Image-Based Abuse Law:

• Strengthen criminal laws on creating, taking and sharing intimate images without consent (including sexually explicit deepfakes)
• Improve civil laws for survivors to take action against perpetrators and tech companies (including orders to take down abusive content)
• Prevent image-based abuse through comprehensive relationships, sex and health education
• Fund specialist services that provide support to victims and survivors of image-based abuse and other forms of male violence against women and girls
• Create an online abuse commission to hold tech companies accountable for image-based abuse and champion victims and survivors’ interests

Illustrating the scale of image-based abuse, Kirith Entwistle cited data from the Revenge Porn Helpline:

• In 2023 alone, the RVP helpline reported nearly 19k cases of abuse, a staggering increase from just 1600 cases in 2019
• Deepfake related abuse has surged by over 400% since 2017, with over 99% targeting women and girls

She reminded Parliament:

These are shocking numbers but they are more than statistics, behind each one is a life and a human story

When Jodie* was subjected to image-based abuse, her life was turned upside down.

After many years of degrading deepfakes circulating online, she eventually discovered that the perpetrator have not broken any laws for the solicitation, creation and sharing of the sexually explicit deepfaked images that had caused her so much suffering. She said:

Even now, I have no idea where these images of me have been shared, and who has had access to them. It makes me feel sick.

Referencing a recent government announcement that image-based abuse will be a priority offence under the new Online Safety Act, Kirith Entwistle noted that sharing intimate images without consent was already prioritised under the law. She added:

So far, the changes under this government have been merely administrative and merely incremental. Having listened to survivors of image-based abuse, I urge the Minister to agree that this is no time for incremental change.

This debate came a week after the Women and Equalities Committee held an oral evidence session on ‘tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse’, with representatives from SWGfL, the Revenge Porn Helpline, Microsoft and Google.

EVAW is pleased to see this urgent issue being addressed in multiple spaces in Parliament, with tech platforms and servers placed under scrutiny.

You can watch a clip of the debate here or read the Hansard entry here.

And if you haven’t already, please sign Jodie’s petition.