German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig is demanding tougher action against the creation and distribution of sexualized images generated by artificial intelligence. She announces plans for a digital violence protection law to better safeguard victims. The issue stems particularly from deepfakes produced on platforms like X using tools such as Grok.
German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) has called for stronger measures against the creation and distribution of sexualized images produced by artificial intelligence in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. "We must protect victims even better from such AI image manipulations. It must become easier to defend against violations of personality rights," she stated. Hubig advocates sharpening criminal law: "We need criminal offenses that specifically address the problem of digital image manipulations."
The trigger is cases where the AI Grok on Elon Musk's platform X generates suggestive images of women, for example by dressing them in revealing bikinis without consent. "I find it appalling when AI tools like Grok mass-produce suggestive images of women," Hubig emphasized. Such manipulations objectify women and violate their personality rights. She is particularly outraged by sexualized images of children and adolescents: "We cannot tolerate that."
Current laws already punish the possession and distribution of child abuse depictions, including AI-generated ones, with severe penalties. For adults, there are civil law options, but Hubig deems them insufficient. Her ministry is drafting a digital violence protection law that would impose appropriate penalties for deepfakes violating personality rights.
Additionally, enforcing rights should be improved: Victims must be able to quickly halt the spread of such images on platforms, which could include temporarily suspending accounts for repeated serious violations. Hubig rejects censorship allegations: "This has nothing to do with censorship." Freedom of speech ends where personality rights are infringed. She supports the EU review of X and Grok initiated by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and seeks no bans on software or platforms.
