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The bill is a sign of Ocasio-Cortez’s growing influence within the Democratic caucus that once shunned her, writes Eric Garcia
Thursday 15 January 2026 00:28 GMT- Bookmark
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On Tuesday, the Senate did something it rarely does: it passed legislation by unanimous consent. The DEFIANCE Act was inoffensive enough: a bill to ban nonconsensual deepfake sexually explicit images.
Moreover, the bill was introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). It’s the latest sign that the lawmaker has grown her influence in a legislative body that once dismissed her as a firebrand but in which she’s now a power broker.
The idea of banning sexually explicit deepfake images without a person’s consent gained massive steam amid the proliferation of nonconsensual images of women and even underage girls on X via Grok, its in-house AI tool.
In the United Kingdom, Sir Keir Starmer warned its owner, Elon Musk, that it would take “fast action” to deal with the nonconsensual images. Indonesia and Malaysia become the first two countries to block Grok.
And Ocasio-Cortez has some ostensible support from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voiced some support for the bill.
open image in galleryRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has spearheaded a bill to ban sexually explicit nonconsensual deepfake images. (Getty Images)“I'm certainly in favor of it,” Johnson told The Independent. “We've got to find the vote tally, but that should be a big bipartisan concern. We need to protect children online, and we need to stop these abuses. Is terrible. It's horrible.”
All of this would seem encouraging if the Senate had not passed the DEFIANCE Act during the last Congress, before it died in the House of Representatives.
“I've spoken with Speaker Johnson. At that point, it's just about having those conversations to ensure that the legislation moves,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent.
open image in galleryElon Musk’s Grok has come under fire for its generating sexually explicit nonconsensual AI images. (PA Archive)Musk remains an influential money man despite his rapid fall from grace in Trump world last year after running the Department of Government Efficiency and his venom toward President Donald Trump.
The two seem to have patched things up and Musk pledged to throw his support behind Republicans on New Year’s Day because “America is toast if the radical left wins.”
And in December, the Pentagon announced that it would add Grok to its “AI arsenal.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she was not surprised by this.
“I mean, they’re in business together,” she told The Independent.
But that doesn’t mean the legislation doesn’t have allies in the House, even from unexpected places. Rep. Nancy Mace, the anti-trans MAGA Republican candidate for governor of South Carolina, told The Independent she supports the bill.
“I just had to have a Grok AI-generated image taken down,” she said. “It was sexually explicit, in my opinion, and disgusting.”
At the same time, Mace said that the problem did not stem from the technology.
“It's the human who's prompting the technology to make these types of deep fakes,” she told The Independent.
“I mean, I'm all over this sort of thing,” she said. “I've sponsored my own bills. I'm co sponsor of other bills. Like, we need to be moving fast on this.”
The legislation is a sign of how Ocasio-Cortez, who came to Washington after she knocked off House Democratic Chairman Joe Crowley in a surprise primary victory in 2018, has become a power broker and a leading messenger.
Despite her ability to generate media headlines and earn the moniker “AOC,” she faced significant opposition from Democratic leadership.
Toward the end of Joe Biden’s presidency, she attempted to run for the ranking member spot on the House Oversight Committee, only to get bumped for a more senior member who ended up dying months into his tenure.
But she might have won the long-term war, given she joined the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which regulates two policies that matter to her: health care and renewable energy. Her endorsement of Zohran Mamdani played a major role in his victory in the New York mayoral primary last year.
And it’s no longer just progressives who see her prowess. Kamala Harris praised Ocasio-Cortez in her memoir 107 Days and Ocasio-Cortez now sends out fundraisers for moderate Democratic campaigns like Abigail Spanberger’s run for governor of Virginia and Mary Peltola’s run for Alaska’s Senate seat, who might have shied away from her in the past.
She’s also become one of the most influential Democrats in terms of responding to Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“I want everyone to understand, the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this,” she told The Independent on Monday. “Understand how these dots connect. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.”
By Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee’s X account blasted out her response.
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