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City Attorney sues most-visited websites that create nonconsensual deepfake pornography

SAN FRANCISCO (August 15, 2024) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced a first-of-its-kind lawsuit today against some of the world’s largest websites that create and distribute nonconsensual AI-generated pornography. The proliferation of nonconsensual deepfake pornographic images has exploited real women and girls across the globe. The lawsuit, filed against the owners of 16 of the most-visited websites that invite users to create nonconsensual nude images of women and girls, alleges the website owners and operators violate state and federal laws prohibiting deepfake pornography, revenge pornography, and child pornography.

“This investigation has taken us to the darkest corners of the internet, and I am absolutely horrified for the women and girls who have had to endure this exploitation,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “Generative AI has enormous promise, but as with all new technologies, there are unintended consequences and criminals seeking to exploit the new technology. We have to be very clear that this is not innovation—this is sexual abuse. This is a big, multi-faceted problem that we, as a society, need to solve as soon as possible. We all need to do our part to crack down on bad actors using AI to exploit and abuse real people, including children.”

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Climate Change The San Francisco City Attorney and Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker filed separate lawsuits on behalf of their respective cities against the top five oil and gas companies, asking the courts to hold them responsible for the costs of the infrastructure necessary to protect their cities from the consequences of climate change caused by their massive production of fossil fuels.

Reproductive Rights The City Attorney’s Office has worked with public and private partners to defend access to reproductive healthcare and ensure all people understand that abortion remains safe and legal in California. We worked with our City clients to launch a webpage to help people navigate abortion care in San Francisco. Learn more here.

Gun Safety Five online suppliers that had been flouting both state and San Francisco law by selling illegal large-capacity magazines as “repair kits” to customers in California have agreed to a wide-ranging injunction that compels them to follow the law. The settlement agreement improves safety in California communities and ensures that rogue companies comply with the law.

Affordable Housing In efforts to combat the affordable housing crisis in San Francisco, the City Attorney’s Office has taken broad actions ranging from filing lawsuits against unscrupulous slumlords and landowners like Academy of Art University to cracking down on affordable housing fraudsters.

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