Emanuela Gallo
In 1856, Edgar Allan Poe wrote, “Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see.” In 2025, even half can’t be believed. Five days after its September launch, Sora 2 topped the App Store with over a million downloads.1OpenAI’s text-to-video app made headlines again in October for pausing use of Martin Luther King Jr. after “disrespectful depictions.”2 “To watch the legacies of real people be condensed down to ‘this vaguely looks and sounds like them so that’s enough,’ just so other people can churn out horrible TikTok slop puppeteering them is maddening,” Zelda Williams said after videos recreating her late father, Robin Williams.3
Concerns about using likenesses without consent implicate not only historical figures and celebrities, but also everyday people. In recent years, minors have had their clothed images made sexually explicit by deepfakes. About 2.3 million have encountered this in their high schools.4 Such victimization has happened to girls in Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, and Washington.5 “One boy with his phone in…an afternoon can victimize 40 girls…,” Yiota Souras from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children told the New York Times.6
Scammers also use deepfakes. Harvesting audio and video from calls, voicemails, or social media, they create impersonations to solicit money or personal information while posing as family, friends, or officials.7
This year, legislatures have enacted 73 laws and introduced 141 bills governing deepfakes. But, states are taking different approaches.8 In Ohio, for example, lawmakers seek to adjust existing name, image, and likeness laws. Existing law limits protections to individuals whose likeness has “commercial value” and addresses use that is “for a commercial purpose.” Ohio House Bill 185, introduced in March, removed those provisions.9 If put into effect, it would disallow using a person’s likeness without written consent, and offer protection to situations where a “reasonable trier of fact” would confuse the “modified facsimile” with the individual.
While such proposals may mitigate the adverse effects of deepfakes, they may also conflict with other protections. Granting individuals protections over their likeness, the Motion Picture Association argues, substantially expands the right of publicity.10 The bill would “permit individuals to prevent others from telling their stories, or to avoid critical or satirical portrayals, which are squarely protected by the First Amendment,” the Association said.
Despite the bill preserving exceptions for literary, historical, and audiovisual works, the burden would shift to the producer to prove that their work falls within an exception. The Association proposed an amendment limiting liability to those who “knowingly” distribute a deepfake with intent to “harass, extort or cause physical harm.”
Other states are taking this more targeted approach. Tennessee, Iowa, New Jersey, and California have passed laws imposing fines and prison time for activities related to sexually explicit deepfakes.11Wisconsin Act 34, which went into effect in October, made what was already a felony—creating or distributing nude media of someone without their knowledge or consent—include AI-generated content using a person’s face or likeness.12
The Take It Down Act, signed by President Donald Trump in May, criminalized the distribution of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes.13 It does not preempt state law. The “digital forgery” must be “indistinguishable” from an identifiable individual’s authentic depiction. The publication must cause, or be intended to cause, harm and not be a matter of public concern.
“Covered platforms,” including public websites and apps, must establish a notice and takedown system by May 19, 2026. Users will be able to report a depiction to the platform, which will have 48 hours to investigate and remove it.
However, more narrow laws have also faced challenges rooted in the First Amendment. X sued Minnesota in April over a 2023 law banning deepfake use to influence elections.14 X alleged that the statute promotes censorship of political speech. “The…requirements are so vague and unintelligible that social media platforms cannot understand how to comply with them,” X’s complaint said. “Those subject to its language will be compelled to over-censor speech to avoid costly litigation potentially leading to criminal liability, over countless judgment calls… .”15 X also claimed that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act preempts the law. Section 230 bars “plaintiffs from holding [internet service providers] legally responsible for information that third parties created and developed.”16
[1] Chris Vallance, OpenAI video app Sora hits 1 million downloads faster than ChatGPT, BBC (Oct. 10, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkjgrvg6z4o; Ashley Capoot, OpenAI's invite-only video generation app Sora tops Apple's App Store, CNBC (Oct. 3, 2025) https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/03/openai-sora-apple-app-store.html.
[2] Jordan Valinsky, OpenAI’s Sora bans Martin Luther King Jr. deepfakes after his family complained, CNN (Oct. 17, 2025), https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/tech/openai-mlk-sora-pause.
[3] Emma Saunders & Helen Bushby, Robin Williams' daughter pleads for people to stop sending AI videos of her dad, BBC (Oct. 7, 2025), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0r0erqk18jo.
[4]CDT Research Reveals Widespread Tech-Powered Sexual Harassment in K-12 Public Schools, Center for Democracy & Technology (Sept. 26, 2024), https://cdt.org/press/cdt-research-reveals-widespread-tech-powered-sexual-harassment-in-k-12-public-schools/.
[5] Bryan Polcyn, Deepfake nudes outpace Wisconsin law; children and adults at risk, FOX6 News Milwaukee (June 3, 2025), https://www.fox6now.com/news/deepfake-nudes-outpace-wisconsin-law-children-adults-risk; Jim Axelrod, Teen victim of AI-generated “deepfake pornography” urges Congress to pass “Take It Down Act”, CBS News (Dec. 18, 2024), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deepfake-pornography-victim-congress/; Caroline Haskins, Florida Middle Schoolers Arrested for Allegedly Creating Deepfake Nudes of Classmates, WIRED (Mar. 8, 2024), https://www.wired.com/story/florida-teens-arrested-deepfake-nudes-classmates/; Natasha Singer, States Move to Ban Deepfake Nudes to Fight Sexually Explicit Images of Minors, The New York Times (Apr. 22, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/technology/deepfake-ai-nudes-high-school-laws.html.
[6]Id.
[7] Cathy Tatom, Deepfake scams surge as criminals weaponize your voicemail greeting, 2 News Oklahoma (Oct. 16, 2025), https://www.kjrh.com/money/consumer/consumer-reports/deepfake-scams-surge-as-criminals-weaponize-your-voicemail-greeting.
[8] Ballotpedia, AI Deepfakes Overview (2025), https://legislation.ballotpedia.org/ai-deepfakes/overview (tracking 363 state bills addressing AI deepfake regulation nationwide).
[9] H.B. 123, 135th Gen. Assemb. (Ohio 2023), https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA135-HB123.
[10] Nick Evans, Morgan Trau, et al., Ohio deepfake bill built on name image and likeness law raises First Amendment concerns, Ohio Capital Journal (Oct. 7, 2025), https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/10/07/ohio-deepfake-bill-built-on-name-image-and-likeness-law-raises-first-amendment-concerns/.
[11] Tiffany Hsu, Deepfake Laws Bring Prosecution and Penalties, but Also Pushback, The New York Times (May 22, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/business/media/deepfakes-laws-free-speech.html.
[12]Destiny DeVooght, Wisconsin bans sexually explicit deepfakes, Courthouse News Service (Oct. 3, 2025) https://www.courthousenews.com/wisconsin-bans-sexually-explicit-deepfakes/.
[13] Stuart Levi & Mana Ghaemmaghami, Take It Down Act' Requires Online Platforms To Remove Unauthorized Intimate Images and Deepfakes When Notified, Skadden Arps (June 10, 2025), https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/06/take-it-down-act.
[14]See Minn. Sec’y of State, Minnesota Law Regulating Election-Related Deep Fakes (2024) (informational), https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2023/cite/609.771.
[15] Caroline Cummings, Elon Musk's X sues Minnesota AG, arguing state's "deepfake" law violates free speech, CBS News (Apr. 25, 2025), https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/x-sues-minnesota-attorney-general-keith-ellison-deepfake-law/.
[16] X Corp. v. Ellison, 2025 US Dist LEXIS 126681, at *3