As feds look to criminalize deepfakes, advocates want a way to erase them from the internet

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Sean Fraser speaks during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa April 20, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable /Postmedia

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OTTAWA — As the federal government looks to criminalize the distribution of sexualized ‘deepfakes’, advocates are calling for it to go even further and provide a way to order that these images be removed.

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It comes as the parliamentary justice committee is set to wrap its study this week on Bill C-16, the Liberals latest piece of criminal justice legislation that, among other measures intended to combat gender-based violence, proposes to change the country’s laws against the non-consensual sharing of intimate images to include a “visual representation.”

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This language is designed to capture what police, victims’ groups and school boards have been warning for years has been the proliferation of sexual images created by generative artificial intelligence.

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“They’re missing the point when it comes to victimization and removal,” said Michelle Abel, a vice-president at the National Council of Women of Canada and founder of a non-profit focused on combatting the exploitation of women and children, said of the government bill.

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She points to a law signed into effect last March by U.S. President Donald Trump known as the Take It Down Act. A bi-partisan effort, later championed by First Lady Melania Trump, it targets sexual images shared without a person’s consent, including AI-generated images known as “deepfakes,” and includes the provision that social media giants must remove such content once reported within 48-hours.

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“We need something more immediate like our U.S. counterpart,” Abel says.

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Different provinces have made changes to existing laws that allow victims of non-consensual image sharing known as “revenge porn,” to include those created and altered by AI. Those measures allow victims to launch civil lawsuits against those who share intimate images of them without their permission.

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In B.C., the province also introduced a service where victims can assess their options, including how to get personal images removed, which could be ordered through a civil resolution tribunal.

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Still, Suzie Dunn, an associate professor at Dalhousie University whose expertise includes deepfakes, says that process can take weeks or even months before an order is issued.

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“Timing is critical in getting images removed as swiftly as possible,” she said.

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“They proliferated, they’ve been downloaded, they’ve been shared. It’s very difficult to contain an image once it’s been released.”

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That is why Dunn, whose research includes gender-based violence that is facilitated through technology, says the federal government ought to prioritize reintroducing a bill that specifically targets online harms by creating measures that hold platforms accountable for dealing with such images once they are reported.

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She said some websites are more responsive to removal requests, with another complicating factor being operators that exist outside of Canada.

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Dunn pointed to a case in B.C. from last year where X challenged a removal order from B.C.’s tribunal regarding a woman who wanted an altered intimate image of herself removed, after the company blocked it from being viewed within Canada.