A federal bill that would let creators control how their own voice and face are used in AI-generated content just cleared a major hurdle. On 18 June 2026, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the NO FAKES Act — the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act — by unanimous voice vote, sending it to the full Senate.
What the bill would actually do
The NO FAKES Act would create a federal intellectual property right giving individuals — not just celebrities, but private citizens and independent creators too — legal ownership over how their voice and visual likeness are used in AI-generated “digital replicas.” That’s a meaningful shift: right now, fighting an AI-generated deepfake of yourself typically means piecing together copyright, defamation, or state-level publicity-rights claims that may or may not apply depending on where you live. This bill would give creators a single, federal legal hook instead.
How the takedown process would work
The bill borrows its enforcement mechanism directly from the DMCA playbook that already governs copyright takedowns. Platforms would be required to remove unauthorised digital replicas once notified, and could face liability themselves if they knowingly continue hosting a replica after being told it’s unauthorised. Whoever posted the content would get a 14-day window to file a counter-notice before the platform could be required to restore it — mirroring how a copyright counter-notice works today.
There’s a real penalty for abusing the system
To discourage bad-faith counter-notices — for example, someone falsely claiming a genuine deepfake of a creator was authorised — the bill sets damages at $25,000 per false counter-notification, or actual damages plus legal fees, whichever is greater.
What’s still missing
This is a committee vote, not a finished law. The bill still needs to pass the full Senate, and a companion bill in the House hasn’t yet been taken up by the House Judiciary Committee — meaning there’s no guarantee of the timeline, or that the final text will look exactly like this draft. The bill also carves out First Amendment protections for news reporting, parody, and criticism, and exempts non-commercial academic research, so it isn’t a blanket ban on AI likeness use.
Why this specifically matters for OnlyFans and creator-economy workers
Unauthorised AI use of a creator’s face and voice isn’t a hypothetical problem in this industry — it’s already showing up in two distinct ways we’ve covered before: platforms explicitly asking creators to license their likeness for AI “digital twins,” and scammers using AI-generated likenesses to run impersonation schemes. A federal likeness right would give creators leverage in both situations that doesn’t currently exist in a consistent form across states.
- If you’re approached about licensing your likeness to an AI platform, read our earlier look at what “digital twin” licensing deals actually involve before signing anything.
- If you’re dealing with an AI-generated impersonation scam already, our coverage of the Snapchat/Cash App impersonation scam has practical detection and reporting steps that don’t depend on this bill passing.
- Document and date-stamp your own reference photos and voice samples now — if the NO FAKES Act does become law, being able to demonstrably prove what your genuine likeness looked like beforehand will make any claim stronger.
- Keep an eye on the House companion bill’s progress separately — Senate committee approval doesn’t guarantee the House moves on the same timeline.
One creator’s account of dealing with impersonators building fake accounts off her real identity — a related but distinct problem from AI-generated replicas — is covered in our piece on catfish accounts trading on a real creator’s name.
This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. The NO FAKES Act is proposed federal legislation that has not yet been enacted and may change before any final vote. If you’re dealing with an existing likeness or impersonation issue, consult a qualified attorney.
