AI Accountability: Denmark targets deepfake threat

• In 2021, Danish video game live-streamer Marie Watson received an image of herself from an unknown Instagram account.

She instantly recognised the holiday photo from her own page — but something was different. Her clothing had been digitally removed to make her appear naked. It was a deepfake.

“It overwhelmed me so much,” Watson recalled. “I just started bursting out in tears, because suddenly, I was there naked.”

In the four years since, deepfakes — realistic AI-generated images, videos or audio of real people — have become easier to make and far more convincing, thanks to rapid advances in generative AI tools from companies like OpenAI and Google.

These tools let millions of users instantly generate content, including for malicious purposes — from pornographic depictions of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry to fake political videos and humiliating attacks on teens and women.

A new legal shield

In response, Denmark is moving to protect citizens, performers and artists whose image or voice can be imitated without consent. A bill expected to pass early next year would revise copyright law to ban the sharing of deepfakes and grant individuals copyright over their own likeness — including their appearance and voice.

If enacted, Danes could demand that platforms remove unauthorised content. Parody and satire would still be allowed, though how that distinction will be made remains uncertain.

Experts say the proposal represents one of the strongest governmental efforts yet to counter deepfake-driven misinformation.

Henry Ajder, founder of consulting firm Latent Space Advisory and a leading expert in generative AI, praised the move.

“Right now, when people ask, ‘What can I do to protect myself from being deepfaked?’ the answer is usually, ‘There isn’t much,’ unless you scrub yourself from the internet — which isn’t really possible,” he said. “We can’t pretend this is business as usual for identity and dignity.”

Fight against deepfakes

In May, US President Donald Trump signed bipartisan legislation banning the publication or threat to publish intimate images — including deepfakes — without consent. South Korea has also toughened laws against deepfake pornography, increasing penalties and tightening social media oversight.

Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said the Danish bill enjoys wide support because deepfakes erode trust in reality and can spread disinformation.

“If you’re able to deepfake a politician without her or him being able to have that product taken down, that will undermine our democracy,” he told reporters during a September AI and copyright conference.

The bill would apply only within Denmark and likely wouldn’t penalise individual users, but large tech platforms that fail to remove deepfakes could face steep fines, Engel-Schmidt said.

Ajder noted that YouTube has developed “a very good system” balancing copyright protection and creative freedom. “It shows the platform understands the scale of the challenge and how much deeper it’s going to become,” he added.

Twitch, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Engel-Schmidt said Denmark, currently holding the EU’s rotating presidency, has already drawn interest from France and Ireland in adopting similar measures.

Protecting identity online

Intellectual property lawyer Jakob Plesner Mathiasen said the bill underscores how deeply digital manipulation now affects daily life.

“The ministry wouldn’t make this bill if there hadn’t been a reason for it,” he said. “We’re seeing fake news, election interference, pornography, and deepfakes of both famous people and ordinary citizens.”

The Danish Rights Alliance, which protects creative industries online, also supports the bill. Its director, Maria Fredenslund, said the current copyright law offers little recourse for victims.

She pointed to Danish voice actor David Bateson — known for voicing a character in the “Hitman” video game and for Lego ads — whose AI voice clones spread widely online.

“When we reported this to platforms, they said, ‘OK, but which regulation are you referring to?’” Fredenslund said. “We couldn’t point to an exact one.”

‘When it’s online, you’re done’

Watson had heard of other influencers discovering fake nude images of themselves but never imagined it could happen to her.

Exploring the dark corners of the web where faceless users trade deepfake imagery — often of women — she was stunned by the ease of creation.

“You could literally just search ‘deepfake generator’ on Google or ‘how to make a deepfake,’ and all these websites would pop up,” said Watson, now 28.

She welcomes her government’s efforts but doubts legislation alone will stop the problem. She believes tech companies must do more.

“It shouldn’t be possible to upload these kinds of pictures,” she said. “When it’s online, you’re done. You can’t do anything — it’s out of your control.”

Associated Press