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Paris Hilton has returned to Capitol Hill to advocate for stronger legal protections against non-consensual explicit content, drawing from her own experience after a private video of her was leaked when she was 19.
The media personality and businesswoman appeared on Thursday, January 22, to support the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, known as the DEFIANCE Act. Standing alongside lawmakers including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hilton reflected on the lasting impact of the unauthorized release of an intimate video involving her and former boyfriend Rick Salomon.
"When I was 19 years old, a private, intimate video of me was shared with the world without my consent," Hilton said. "People called it a scandal. It wasn't. It was abuse."
Hilton told lawmakers that at the time of the leak, there were no legal protections for victims and little understanding of the harm caused. "There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren't even words for what had been done to me," she said, noting that the internet was still new and largely unregulated.
She described the public response as deeply damaging, saying she was mocked and dismissed. "They called me names. They laughed and made me the punchline," Hilton said, adding that few recognized the emotional toll the experience took on her. "No one asked me what I lost."
Although Hilton said she spent years rebuilding her confidence and sense of safety, she explained that new technology has created fresh challenges. "I believed that the worst was behind me, but it wasn't," she said. "What happened to me then is happening now to millions of women and girls in a new and more terrifying way."
Hilton warned that artificial intelligence has made it easier to create explicit material without consent, calling deepfake pornography "an epidemic." She revealed that more than 100,000 explicit AI-generated images using her likeness currently exist. "Not one of them is real, not one of them is consensual," she said.
If passed, the DEFIANCE Act would allow victims to take legal action against those who create or distribute AI-generated pornographic deepfakes. Hilton said the legislation is necessary to address what she described as a growing form of digital exploitation.
"Too many women are afraid to exist online or sometimes to exist at all," she said. Hilton added that she is speaking not only for herself, but for those who lack the platform to be heard.
"Telling the truth has helped me heal," Hilton said. "And I will keep telling the truth to protect every woman, every girl, every survivor."
