Senator Aisha Wahab’s AI Bill on Digital Identity Theft Gains Unanimous Bipartisan Support in Senate Judiciary

Sacramento, CA — SB 981, Digital Identity Theft Act—authored by California Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Silicon Valley), Chair of Senate Public Safety Committee—will prompt social media platforms to create a reporting mechanism for removing material considered Digital Identity Theft. On Tuesday, the bill passed Senate Judiciary with unanimous bipartisan support.

“We need support and collaboration from social media platforms to protect women and children from digital sexual violence,” says Senator Wahab. “Victims of Digital Identity Theft deserve all the recourse we can create to mitigate the ongoing online violence from their perpetrators.”

SB 981 defines Digital Identity Theft on a social media platform as material that was created through digitization of an identifiable person and is an image or video of their intimate body part(s) or them engaging in a sex act; without the identifiable person’s consent.

Senator Wahab’s AI Policy Package also includes SB 926 which expands existing law to ensure the unauthorized distribution of artificially created images—with the intent to harm the person whose face is in the photo—is a crime, and SB 933—AI Child Safety—which ensures AI-generated imagery is appropriately covered in child pornography laws. Both bills passed Senate Public Safety with unanimous bipartisan support.

Sensity AI stated in 2021 that up to 95% of online deepfake videos since 2018 were nonconsensual porn. Of those non-consensual videos, 90% are of women. Senator Wahab, has stated that these AI-generated images can ruin an individual’s entire life leading to a lack of workplace promotions, mental health deterioration, shame, and social isolation.

SB 981 will now head directly to the Senate Floor. SB 926 and SB 933 will be heard in Senate Appropriations on Monday, May 6, 2024.