Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. Congresswoman
New York congresswoman who — after being targeted by AI-generated sexual imagery herself — led the DEFIANCE Act, the first federal bill letting deepfake-porn victims sue their abusers.
In her words
Over 90% of all deepfake videos made are non-consensual sexually explicit images. Women are targeted 9 times out of 10. The DEFIANCE Act would be the first federal protection for survivors of deepfake pornography — allowing them to seek the justice they deserve.
Deepfakes are absolutely a way of digitizing violent humiliation against other people.
Biography
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born 1989) is the Democratic congresswoman for New York’s 14th district, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the time of her 2018 upset, and one of the most visible politicians in America — which has also made her one of the most deepfaked.
The DEFIANCE Act
In early 2024, Ocasio-Cortez led the bipartisan, bicameral introduction of the DEFIANCE Act with Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, creating the first federal civil right of action for victims of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes. The fight was personal: she told Rolling Stone she had encountered AI-generated sexual images of herself, describing the experience as resurfacing trauma and saying such fakes parallel “the same exact intention of physical rape and sexual assault.” The Senate passed the bill unanimously in July 2024.
Her stance carries nuance often flattened in coverage. As a co-chair of a House task force conversation on AI, she has focused her fire on abuse — deepfake porn, algorithmic exploitation, corporate concentration — rather than on the technology itself, and she has engaged AI policy through a labor lens consistent with her democratic-socialist politics. But her legislative record on AI is one of restraint and accountability, not promotion.
Where they stand in the war
Who backs them up
Sources & further reading
Canonical record: https://battlelines.ai/topic/alexandria-ocasio-cortez