Stop Image-Based Abuse Law Campaign
The Stop Image-Based Abuse Campaign, spearheaded by Jodie, a survivor of deepfake abuse, launched on 19th June 2024 in collaboration with End Violence Against Women Coalition, Professor Clare McGlynn, #NotYourPorn and GLAMOUR UK. This campaign and our work with Baroness Owen led to the first law criminalising deepfake abuse and its solicitation in the UK.
Campaign Overview
The Stop Image-Based Abuse Campaign, spearheaded by Jodie, a survivor of deepfake abuse, launched on 19th June 2024 in collaboration with End Violence Against Women Coalition, Professor Clare McGlynn, #NotYourPorn and GLAMOUR UK. The campaign aimed to introduce a dedicated image-based abuse law that would:
Strengthen criminal laws on creating, taking and sharing intimate images without consent (including sexually explicit deepfakes)
Improve civil laws for survivors to take action against perpetrators and tech companies
Prevent image-based abuse through comprehensive relationships and sex education
Fund specialist services that support victims/survivors of image-based abuse
Create an Online Abuse Commission to hold tech companies accountable
To make sure image-based abuse was on Keir Starmer’s new Labour Government’s agenda, we wrote to the then Minister for the Department of Science, Innovation and technology, Peter Kyle. Please find our open letter to Peter Kyle below.
Furthermore, as part of this campaign, #NotYourPorn and the other partners supported Jodie to launch a petition to criminalise creating sexually explicit deepfakes - an unacceptable gap in UK legislation - securing the support of 73,000 people and successfully changing the law.
Alongside this campaign we supported Baroness Owen on her Private Members Bill to criminalise sexually explicit deepfakes and their solicitation crafted from Jodie’s lived experience. It received wide cross-party support in the Lords. After considerable effort to support Baroness Owen, we managed to push the Government to bring its own amendment banning deepfake abuse. However, this was based on perpetrator intent rather than consent. We continued to campaign which drove the Government to U-Turn, introducing an amendment which was consent-based.
Our collective efforts finally led the Government to bring the offences into force on 6th February 2026. Not only was the criminalisation of deepfakes based on the violation of consent rather than a perpetrator’s intent, which was a monumental win as it closed loopholes, it also goes one step further and criminalises someone asking someone else to create a deepfake of a person.
Given that the evolution of laws on image-based abuse have been slow and left huge gaps for survivors to navigate, it cannot be stressed enough how absolutely vital it was that these elements were secured in the first iteration of legislation on deepfakes.
Relevant reporting:
https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/image-based-abuse-act-campaign
https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/glamour-campaign-10-downing-street
https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/deepfakes-nr26deepfake-kvnw50hm7
