### Proposed Legislation Raises Alarms Among Digital Rights Advocates The **NO FAKES Act** aims to tackle the growing issue of AI-generated impersonations, but its proposed framework has ignited significant concerns among digital rights organizations. The **EFF**, alongside groups like the **Center for Democracy & Technology** and the **American Civil Liberties Union**, has signed a letter imploring Congress not to advance the bill without substantial revisions. ### DMCA-Style Takedowns and Chilling Effects The core of the opposition lies in the bill's potential to import the most problematic aspects of the **Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)** notice-and-takedown system into a much broader range of online content. This could incentivize platforms to err on the side of caution, removing content preemptively to avoid hefty penalties, even if the speech is lawful. Platforms face a difficult dilemma under the proposed act. It offers no protection for their judgment when assessing whether content constitutes satire, parody, commentary, or news. An incorrect assessment could lead to penalties of up to $750,000 per work, creating a strong impetus to remove potentially protected speech. ### Undermining Individual Control Over Likeness Paradoxically, the **NO FAKES Act** could also undermine the very rights it purports to protect. The bill introduces a new federal 'likeness' right that can be licensed or transferred, potentially stripping individuals of control over their own face and voice. This isn't a theoretical concern, as the entertainment industry frequently requires workers to sign broad contracts regarding the future use of their likenesses. As the coalition's letter highlights: > A background actor who signs a release on set or an ordinary person who clicks through a platform's terms of service could end up with the right to their own face and voice in someone else's hands, for years, with federal enforcement behind it. ### Call for Narrowly Tailored Solutions The **EFF** and its allies are advocating for Congress to explore existing legal remedies and develop more narrowly tailored solutions to address genuine harms caused by AI impersonations. They warn against creating a sweeping new intellectual property right that could inadvertently threaten free expression and individual digital autonomy. Signatories to the letter include the **Center for Democracy & Technology**, the **American Civil Liberties Union**, **Fight for the Future**, **Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression**, the **Organization for Transformative Works**, **Public Knowledge**, the **R Street Institute**, **The Future of Free Speech**, and the **Woodhull Freedom Foundation**. [Read the full letter here.](https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NO-FAKES-Summer-2026_FINAL-1.pdf)