Equity has called on Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to back personality rights after her Labour conference pledge to tackle abusive and non-consensual images — arguing generative AI is fuelling unauthorised digital replicas of people’s faces, bodies, voices and likenesses.
Nandy told conference Labour would “call time on the violent indifference” towards online abuse and “build a future where abusive content is not just removed, but removed forever.” The session also heard from campaigner and TV presenter Georgia Harrison, who described unauthorised personal video being uploaded online and an “online classroom” where young boys are taught that women’s bodies are content and abuse is normalised.
Responding, Equity — the performing arts and entertainment trade union representing around 50,000 performers and creative practitioners — said personality rights would strengthen the fight against deepfakes and protect artists and the wider public.
Fleming: welcome pledge, but Gen-AI replicas need personality rights
General secretary Paul W Fleming welcomed the Culture Secretary’s commitment and pressed for swift legislation.
“We welcome the Culture Secretary’s pledge to tackle abusive online content. In addition to real photos and videos, we are increasingly seeing AI-generated content proliferate online, much of it unauthorised, malicious, sexual or violent.
“Generative-AI has made it quick and easy to create and share unauthorised digital replicas of real people’s face, body, voice or likeness. Performance and entertainment industries are high-risk areas because they are highly visual, with recordings of performers’ work available to wide audiences. While politicians, celebrities and public figures all face risks – these risks are there for anyone.
“We call on the government to act swiftly to introduce personality rights to tackle the unauthorised use of Gen-AI digital replicas and in doing so significantly strengthen the ability of artists and workers to fight deepfakes.”
Equity’s wider campaign material is at Stop AI Stealing the Show.
