Paris Hilton is once again using her platform to address an issue of grave importance, speaking out in Washington D.C. about the lasting impacts of trauma stemming from non-consensual intimate content. The 44-year-old entrepreneur and reality television star joined Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers to advocate for the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, known as the DEFIANCE Act. This proposed legislation seeks to empower victims of explicit AI-generated deepfakes with the legal means to take action against those who create and distribute such content.
During her visit on January 22, Hilton reflected on the profound impact of having a private video leaked without her consent when she was just a teenager. “When I was 19-years-old, a private, intimate video of me was shared with the world without my consent,” she recounted. “People called it a scandal. It wasn’t. It was abuse.” At the time the incident occurred, there were no laws to protect her, and the language to describe her experience was nonexistent. As the internet was still emerging, so too was the cruelty that accompanied it.
Hilton shared her painful journey, explaining how she was subjected to humiliation, being turned into a “punchline” while the details of her trauma became fodder for clicks. Despite the emotional turmoil she faced, she found herself being advised to simply move on and feel fortunate for the attention. Hilton emphasized, “These people didn’t see me as a young woman who had been exploited. They didn’t see the panic that I felt, the humiliation or the shame. No one asked me what I lost.”
Since the release of the video in 2004, Hilton has worked tirelessly to reclaim her narrative. However, the advent of artificial intelligence has made it increasingly easy for anyone to generate explicit content without consent. She estimates that there are currently over 100,000 explicit deepfake images of her online, highlighting a disturbing reality that the technology has created.
“In my mind, I believed that the worst was behind me, but it wasn’t,” Hilton lamented, pointing out that the experiences she endured are now being echoed by millions of women and girls in a more insidious fashion. “Deepfake pornography has become an epidemic,” she declared.
As a mother, Hilton is motivated to protect her daughter and others from becoming victims of this technology. “What I’ve learned is that when your image is violated, it doesn’t disappear. It lives inside you, but so does your power. Telling the truth has helped me heal,” she stated with conviction.
In a powerful conclusion, Hilton affirmed, “I am Paris Hilton, a woman, a wife, a mom, a survivor, and what was done to me was wrong. And I will keep telling the truth to protect every woman, every girl, every survivor, now and for the future.” Her continued advocacy not only sheds light on her own experience but also serves to empower others facing similar violations. This commitment to change is a beacon of hope for many as society grapples with the implications of rapidly evolving technology.