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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Local meteorologist Bree Smith says she has been a target of deepfake sexualized images and is pushing for harsher punishments for their creators. She says it's taken a toll on both her and her family to deal with hundreds of fake accounts.
Smith took the stand on Wednesday at the Tennessee House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, sharing her experience of finding her face edited onto other people's semi-nude bodies.
"We don't get to choose the traumatic things that happen in our lives, but we do get to choose what we do with it," Smith said.
She says accounts on both Facebook and Instagram use altered images and videos to pretend to be her, offering people exclusive content if they send money or personal information. She's tried to report them all herself, but says it's impossible.
"I try my best to catch the imposters and block them, but like I said, there have been hundreds of them. It's like whack a mole, they just appear everywhere," Smith said.
That's why she wants to make the Preventing Deepfake Images Act into a law. To give people a way to press both civil and criminal charges against those who create these, because right now, she says, there are no consequences and she's worried it'll happen more and more.
"I'm just supposed to look at them and say nothing we can do, bud? People can use your face and distort it in any intimate way they want," Smith said.
She says she never wants another family to go through the fear of seeing their loved one portrayed like that.
"The one guiding point that got me through the darkest part of this was, remember this so that you can help somebody else," Smith said.
She hugged her husband and lawyer as the committee voted unanimously to forward the bill to the judiciary committee.