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NEED TO KNOW
Paris Hilton spoke on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Jan. 22, endorsing the DEFIANCE Act, which is spearheaded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of Congress
The bill would allow victims of AI-generated sexually explicit deepfakes to take legal action against the creators and distributors of the content
In her speech, Hilton reflected on the trauma of her sex tape being leaked in 2004 and explained the fears of girls and women who could become victims of AI pornography
Paris Hiltonis back on Capitol Hill, and once again she is advocating for legislative changes based on her personal experience.
TheSimple Lifealum, 44, got vulnerable while advocating for the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, or DEFIANCE Act, on Thursday, Jan. 22. One year after Hiltonsuccessfully campaigned to pass a bill that enacted protections for institutionalized youth, she returned to Capitol Hill to share a personal and traumatic experience in hopes of making a change.
"Coming back to the Capitol, I feel something new, strength," she began, standing alongside CongresswomanAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has played a leading role in championing the bill. "When I was 19 years old, a private, intimate video of me was shared with the world without my consent. People called it a scandal. It wasn't. It was abuse. There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren't even words for what had been done to me. The internet was still new, and so was the cruelty that came with it."
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"They called me names. They laughed and made me the punchline. They sold my pain for clicks, and then they told me to be quiet, to move on, to even be grateful for the attention," Hilton continued. "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 — I lost control over my body, over my reputation. My sense of safety and self-worth was stolen from me."
In the years since the2004 leak of the sex tape— which included footage of Hilton and her former boyfriend Rick Salomon — the businesswoman noted that she has "fought hard to get those things back," and she thought she had. However, with the advancement of artificial intelligence, it is easier than ever to make sexually explicit content of anyone.
"I believed that the worst was behind me, but it wasn't," Hilton declared. "What happened to me then is happening now to millions of women and girls in a new and more terrifying way. Before, someone had to betray your trust and steal something real. Now all it takes is a computer and a stranger's imagination. Deepfake pornography has become an epidemic."
If passed, theDEFIANCE Actwould allow victims the right to take legal action against creators and distributors of AI-generated pornographic deepfakes.
Hilton also shared that there are "over 100,000 explicit deepfake images" of her that have been "made by AI."
"Not one of them is real, not one of them is consensual. And each time a new one appears, that horrible feeling returns, that fear that someone somewhere is looking at it right now and thinking it's real," Hilton said. "No amount of money or lawyers can stop it or protect me from more. It's the newest form of victimization happening at scale, to your daughters, your sisters, your friends and neighbors."
Hilton's husband,Carter Reum, was also there to support his wife as she spoke on Capitol Hill.
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The socialite further claimed that one in eight girls experience the harms of deepfake porn — a statistic she called "staggering."
"Too many women are afraid to exist online or sometimes to exist at all, and I know how that feels, because I lived it," she said. "Now I have a daughter who's just two-and-a-half years old, and I would go to the ends of the earth to protect her. But I can't protect her from this, not yet. And that's why I'm here. This isn't just about technology, it's about power. It's about using someone's likeness to humiliate, silence and strip them of their dignity. Victims deserve more than after-the-fact apologies. We deserve justice."
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Hilton explained that she is speaking on behalf of all of those who can't speak out for themselves, acknowledging how "lucky" she is to have her voice heard.
"I had the platform to reclaim my story, but so many others don't," she continued. "And 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, and I am so proud that today I stand here without shame."
She concluded her remarks by saying, "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."
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