Speeches by Davies-Jones.

“This is something we debated really heavily during the creation of the Online Safety Act 2023. I was the Opposition shadow Minister leading for the Labour party on the Bill, and we went about this around the houses on how one accesses compensation and how one gets that redress. We currently have the Ofcom range of powe…”

“We have committed to making an offence of creating a deepfake, making that illegal, and we will be legislating for that in this Session. There are already a number of offences in the realm of this. In terms of what is illegal, there are a number of offences on voyeurism, threat to share, sharing and so on. There are al…”

“We are looking at that very closely. The gap related to deepfakes specifically is something we are committed to dealing with in this Session. If a non-consensual intimate image is uploaded, that is illegal; we have made that illegal now. It is priority content, and platforms will have to check and to remove it. Ofcom’s…”

“It is illegal. We need to be clear here that non-consensual intimate imagery that is uploaded is illegal. Gaps currently exist around deepfake creation, which we are legislating for in this Session. Part of the problem is that we have registered it now as priority content, over which Ofcom will have to do their codes o…”

“Yeah, Ofcom would be able to take action against them, and the powers that they have would be to fine them £18 million or 10% of their global revenue.”

“That we are closing.”

“No, that’s not the loophole. The loophole is around the creation of the image, and that is the loophole that we are closing. Currently, sharing that image without consent is illegal.”

“Yes, and that’s what we are closing.”

“If we make a criminal offence in this country the creation of that deepfake, then yes.”

“It means, as we have heard, that the platforms will have to actively make sure that this content is not proliferating on their platforms and take action against it to remove it. When they are made aware of it, they have to take action to remove this imagery. Otherwise, they are falling foul of the Online Safety Act and…”

“That is something DSIT is looking at. We are awaiting the code of practice to be published by Ofcom next month. I appreciate that it is frustrating that we have not got them now, but we are waiting to see what is in the codes and in any implementation of the Act—that could be something that is in the Act. Organisations…”

“There are already a wide range of civil actions that can be taken against those who are perpetrating intimate image abuse, including actions for defamation and harassment. Victims and survivors are able to get that redress directly from the perpetrator.”

“I cannot comment on individual cases. The whole point is that they are done by the judiciary—if under civil law, it is a civil case, but if through another means, it is independent. What I can say is that we need to make victims and survivors aware of their rights under the victims code. That is something that is squar…”

“I am aware of the evidence that you have heard and of people’s feedback about Ofcom. Ofcom is in a unique position here, where it has yet to publish its codes of practice. A lot of this has yet to be implemented. There are a lot of ifs, buts and maybes on how this Act will work. My lovely colleague in the Home Office s…”

“It is a very good question, which we are having close conversations with our colleagues in DSIT about. As I said in my previous answer, we are not just waiting until the legislation is implemented to take action. A whole ream of work is going on, that underpins all this, to tackle violence against women and girls and t…”

“I cannot comment on the first point. It is for the courts to determine awards, but I would argue that no amount of money is going to fix this. Money is not the only answer in terms of support available to victims and survivors. The Home Office funds the helpline. The Ministry of Justice funds several support services a…”

“It is a disabling mental injury, which is what the scheme covers.”

“I totally agree, and that is why I made the point that financial redress is just one element of the victim support available to them. The MoJ funds a ream of support services for tackling violence against women and girls, to support victims and survivors across the country, including therapeutic support, with grants di…”

“Oh gosh. I would advise them to phone the police to report the crime, and hopefully they would get—at least once we have got to grips with it—a really good response from the police and they would know how to take action to deal with it. There is also the Revenge Porn Helpline, which I hate the name of but which the Hom…”

“If it is on a non-compliant website, sadly, it is horrendous. I would ask them to seek out victim support and go to somebody to get that support. The problem we have is that until the Online Safety Act is implemented, there is no way of getting that material taken down.”