NO FAKES Act Key To Making America (And AI) Great Again
[⚠️ Suspicious Content] This piece was originally published in American Greatness.
It’s time to face a hard truth: the digital frontier isn’t just the next economic battleground—it’s a cultural and moral one, too. Deepfake videos can destroy reputations and synthetic voices can fool even the savviest among us. Fortunately, there is a solution. The NO FAKES Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, is a much-needed line in the sand, offering a principled defense of individual rights in the face of runaway AI.
For conservatives who value individual liberty, property rights, and the rule of law, this bill is common sense.
At its core, the NO FAKES Act establishes a federal property right over one’s voice and visual likeness. That means that whether you’re a world-famous artist or a private citizen, your identity—your face, your voice, your very persona—cannot be digitally replicated without your consent.
AI-generated images are rampant and often sexual in nature, and they’re getting more convincing every day. They don’t just target celebrities but ordinary people: students, mothers, and strangers. Establishing the legal right to your identity is imperative to lay the groundwork for a future of AI that’s built on innovation, not exploitation.
The bill is smartly crafted. It targets only “digital replicas”—hyper-realistic, computer-generated versions of a person’s voice or likeness created without their approval. The bill provides a safe harbor for platforms that comply with takedown notices and respect First Amendment uses like satire, news, commentary, and historical or biographical storytelling.
But more than that, the NO FAKES Act is a strategic masterstroke for federal AI policy. As it stands, there is a patchwork of inconsistent and vague state laws trying to grapple with this issue. Some states offer post-mortem protections; others don’t. Some criminalize deepfakes used in elections or pornography, while others remain silent. This legal fragmentation creates uncertainty not just for victims, but also for developers, startups, and platforms trying to innovate responsibly.
The NO FAKES Act addresses this with federal preemption—creating a uniform national standard for digital replicas. This is crucial. America cannot lead in AI if every company needs 50 legal teams to navigate likeness rights in each state. A national framework streamlines compliance, strengthens intellectual property rights, and allows us to set a global example of how to regulate AI responsibly without stifling it.
This is where populist conservatism shines. We believe in protecting everyday Americans from exploitation by powerful actors—whether those actors are Big Government, Big Tech, or bad-faith AI developers. We believe that each person is made in the image of God and that our identities are not commodities to be harvested and manipulated by Silicon Valley without our permission.
The bill also respects economic freedom. It doesn’t ban AI development or artistic expression. It simply requires consent and accountability. It empowers individuals to license their digital likeness if they wish—but on their terms, not through coercion or theft.
Moreover, the NO FAKES Act strengthens our cultural defenses. In a world where synthetic media can erode trust in institutions, distort elections, or sow division, we need legal tools to draw bright lines around truth and authenticity. Deepfakes don’t just hurt celebrities—they undermine parents, teachers, pastors, and police officers whose reputations can be wrecked with the click of a mouse.
Some critics will say the bill is unnecessary or burdensome. But let’s be clear: no serious conservative wants a world where your mother’s voice can be cloned into a robocall asking for money—or worse. Nor should artists be replaced by their digital ghosts without compensation or control. If the market is to remain moral, it must remain just.
The support for this bill is broad and telling. It unites civil libertarians, the entertainment industry, open-source developers, and even AI companies like OpenAI and IBM. This bill focuses on protecting the dignity and autonomy of every American.
We’ve been here before. When photography and film were new, the courts had to step in to recognize a “right of publicity”—a person’s right not to have their image exploited without permission.
The NO FAKES Act says yes to consent, yes to innovation, and yes to personal freedom. It’s the kind of clear-eyed legislation that conservatives should champion—because protecting the integrity of the individual is not just an AI issue. It’s an American one.
