by Jessica Buchleitner, FAUSA
What would you do if intimate images of you flooded the internet without your consent? Who would you call? How would you get them removed when there are thousands of versions on websites, social platforms and other media?
At the 69th annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations headquarters in New York, FAWCO had the opportunity to host a panel discussion addressing image-based sexual abuse (IBSA)* – the increasingly common unauthorized and adversarial personal and deepfake images flooding the internet and targeting women, especially those rising to powerful positions.
Hosted by FAWCO member and UN delegate Jessica Buchleitner, panelists Susanna Gibson, Breeze Liu, Andrea Powell, Noelle Martin and Silvia Semenzin discussed urgent solutions: prevention strategies through technology and government policy, public education and comprehensive legal protections, including criminalization across the United States, Europe and Australia. Nearly the all panelists have personally experienced IBSA and are dedicated to fighting back against its spread. Many efforts underway in the United States are due to bipartisan cooperation at a time when the country’s political divides are stark, representing the ability to come together to protect women.
The ease of making this adversarial deepfake content with current AI capabilities will only grow alongside AI as a force for positive change. This panel is a wake-up call to those building these technologies to acknowledge and, to their best extent, prevent undue harm.
Legislative progress
Since the panel discussion in March 2025, with the help of panelist Susanna Gibson, South Carolina (SC) became the final state in the US after more than five years of attempts when House Bill 3058 passed the South Carolina state legislature and was subsequently signed into law by Governor Henry McMaster – catapulting SC from the only state without a law protecting against image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) to the state with the strongest nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII) protections in the nation.
The bill introduces a tiered penalty structure, ensuring that people who share intimate images to cause harm face felony charges, while those with no intent to harm are held accountable with misdemeanor penalties.
Also in April 2025, by a 409-2 vote the US House of Representatives passed the Take It Down Act, a bipartisan bill requiring online platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including sexually explicit deepfakes and what is often incorrectly referred to as “revenge porn.” The Take It Down Act now will be sent to the President’s desk for signing.
Introduced in June 2024 in a bipartison effort by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and Republican Senator Ted Cruz, the Take It Down Act has passed the Senate twice. Panelist Breeze Liu spoke at the event while prior to the panel, panelist Andrea Powell attended First Lady Melania Trump’s roundtable at the White House on March 3 to rally support for the bill.
FAWCO is proud of these continued efforts from our panelists and will continue support them by raising awareness of their efforts and hosting discussions to further public knowledge.
Panel Extension: Amanda Knox Podcast Interview on Women, Media Narratives and Wrongful Convictions
Panel moderator Jessica Buchleitner hosted an in-depth discussion with Amanda Knox as an extension to our official panel. The interview was published on May 14, 2025 on the Narrative Dive podcast.
Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in an Italian prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit. At the heart of her wrongful conviction was the power of sensational “sticky” media narratives – stories shaped more by spectacle than truth, and weaponized in particular ways against women.
She reflects on the journey of reclaiming her voice from the grip of global tabloids. She unpacks how the media often distorts female identity through the lens of sexuality to vilify women and sway public perception, especially during criminal trials. She also shares the surprising emotional work of coming to see her prosecutor – the man who helped orchestrate her wrongful conviction – as a human being.
But this conversation isn’t only about the past. Amanda also emphasizes today’s attention economy, where facts often lose to the most compelling narrative, and where the line between reality and fiction grows ever thinner.
Link to the Apple podcast.
*also known as nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII) or nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII)