You could get deepfakes of your face taken down
Independent Senator David Pocock wants your face and voice treated as yours. The online safety watchdog could order fake videos, pictures and sound clips taken down. People hurt by them could take the maker or sharer to court.
Official name: Online Safety and Other Legislation Amendment (My Face, My Rights) Bill 2025
- Posting a deepfake of someone without their okay could bring a fine of up to 500 penalty units. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used for fines.
- You could complain to the eSafety Commissioner, the online safety watchdog. She could order the deepfake taken down.
- You could sue someone who knowingly or carelessly uses or shares a deepfake of you without your okay.
- Journalists, police, spy agencies and people under 18 could not be sued under the new right.
- It is a bill from one senator, not the government. It is still before the Senate.
Who it affects
- Anyone whose face or voice is faked: You could complain to the watchdog to get it removed. You could sue the person who used or shared it.
- People who post deepfakes: Posting one without the person's okay could bring a court fine and a court case.
- Social media and hosting sites: Hosting sites store other people's content online. They could be ordered to remove deepfakes. They could be fined if they ignore the order.
- Parents of children under 16: The okay for a child under 16 would have to come from a parent or guardian.
- Journalists and police: They could not be sued under the new right in the cases the bill sets out.
Deepfakes are easy to make
A deepfake is a fake picture, video or sound clip made with technology. It shows a real person's face or voice doing or saying things they never did.
AI, or artificial intelligence, has made deepfakes easy to make and hard to spot. Senator David Pocock wrote notes to explain his bill. They say deepfakes are used for scams, false information and abuse. They say women, children and others who are easily hurt face the most risk.
The notes also say current laws do not deal well with the harm deepfakes cause. These include laws on image-based abuse, which means sharing private images without consent. They also include laws on privacy and defamation, which covers false claims that hurt your good name. The bill has two parts. One changes the Online Safety Act 2021. The other changes the Privacy Act 1988.
What counts as a deepfake
The bill says deepfake material is content that shows a person's face or voice in a lifelike way. It must have been made or changed by technology. The change can be total, or large, or important in some way.
Sharing counts as without consent if the person shown has not said yes. Their yes must be clear, freely given and made knowing the facts. For a child under 16, a parent or guardian must say yes.
Some things the law already covers keep their own rules. These are online bullying, online abuse and image-based abuse. This keeps the new deepfake rules separate.
Complaints and takedown orders
Say a deepfake of you is posted. You, or someone acting for you, could complain to the eSafety Commissioner. That is the government's online safety watchdog.
The watchdog could look into it. She could send a removal notice to the social media site, the website host or the person who posted it. The notice would tell them to take the material down.
Ignoring a removal notice could bring a fine set by a court. The watchdog could also give formal warnings and orders to fix the problem. She could publicly name services that ignore notices.
Say someone makes a fake video using your voice. In it, you ask friends for money. They post it online. Under this bill you could report it to the watchdog and ask for it to be removed.
Fines for posting deepfakes
Posting a deepfake of a person without their okay would itself break the law. The biggest court fine would be 500 penalty units. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used to work out fines.
The watchdog's yearly report would also have to include figures on deepfake complaints and what was done about them.
A new right to sue
The second part adds a new section to the end of the Privacy Act. It would let a person take someone to court over a deepfake.
You could sue if four things are true. You appear in the deepfake. The other person used or shared it knowing it was fake, or not caring if it was. They did it without your okay. And you were harmed, or they made money or gained from it.
You would not have to prove the deepfake hurt you. The bill treats the use itself as harmful.
A court could order the person to stop. It could order them to pay you money. It could order them to set the record straight or say sorry.
Defences, exemptions and time limits
A person could defend themselves if the law allowed the use. They could also use a defence from the law on false claims. One example is something said in Parliament or a court.
Some people could not be sued under this right. They are journalists who follow their work standards and government agencies acting honestly. They also include police, spy agencies and anyone under 18.
You would have one year from when you found out to start a case. Or you would have three years from when it happened. A court could stretch that to six years at most.
A rule would stop people suing again and again over the same deepfake each time it is shared. A case could not be brought for someone who has died. State laws and other court options would keep working next to the new right.
Waiting in the Senate
If passed, the new rules would start the day after the bill was signed into law. That is done by the Governor-General, the King's representative.
Senator Pocock brought the bill into the Senate on 24 November 2025. The Senate is the second house of Parliament. The Senate debated the main idea of the bill on 25 June 2026. The government did not bring in this bill. It is still before the Senate. It would need to pass the Senate and then the House of Representatives.
Its journey through Parliament
| 24 Nov 2025 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 24 Nov 2025 | Senate: Second reading moved |
| 25 Jun 2026 | Senate: Second reading debate |