Baroness Owen to introduce law change aimed at criminalising deepfake creation

Lady Owen has led calls about the rise in deepfake nude images generated by artificial intelligence.

Video grab of the the introduction of, Charlotte Owen, 30, a former Boris Johnson adviser (PA) (PA Media)

A law change aimed at criminalising “disproportionately sexist” deepfake porn will be introduced in Parliament by a former adviser to Boris Johnson.

Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge, who was a special adviser to the ex-prime minister during his time in Downing Street, will introduce the Private Member’s Bill in the House of Lords.

“My Bill seeks to create offences relating to taking of sexually explicit images, which basically means that you can’t take a sexually explicit picture of someone without their consent,” Lady Owen said in her first broadcast interview with Channel 4 News.

She added: “The second part of it is you can’t create deepfake image or ask someone to create a deepfake image for you without consent.”

I want to help push this law through to prevent more women becoming victims of this technology

Baroness Owen

The 31-year-old Conservative peer was until recently the youngest member of the House of Lords, until Plaid Cymru’s Carmen Smith was appointed to Parliament’s upper chamber.

Lady Owen has previously issued warnings in the House of Lords about a huge increase in people using so-called nudify apps, applications which allow users to create fake nude images or videos of other people through generative artificial intelligence, widely known as deepfakes.

Speaking to Channel 4, Lady Owen said deepfake porn “is disproportionately sexist”.

She added: “There’s so many victims being created every single week.

“Women are losing the ability to choose who owns a naked image, an explicit video.

“Then women can no longer choose.

“That choice has been taken away from them.”

The Online Safety Act has made it illegal to share deepfakes without consent, but Lady Owen has said the law needs to go further.

The baroness also told the broadcaster she was still in touch with her former boss Mr Johnson, and claimed he “always offers wonderful advice” when she was asked about the online disinformation and speculation about why he had nominated her for a peerage.

Lady Owen said she had been surprised to receive the nomination, which came through by email.

Asked if she thought there was an equivalence between the online speculation about why she was appointed to the Lords, and the creation of deepfakes, the Tory peer said: “Falsehoods and the creation of falsehoods online is always wrong, and that’s why I want to be an advocate.

“I want to help push this law through to prevent more women becoming victims of this technology.

“And I believe that misinformation and disinformation and deep fakes as a part of this will form a huge topic of conversation for the next decade.”