Spain enacts comprehensive deepfake law criminalizing non-consensual intimate imagery

Spain's Congress approved sweeping criminal-law reforms on October 8, 2024, that explicitly prohibit the creation, distribution and possession of AI-generated deepfake sexual images and videos produced without the subject's consent, with penalties of up to five years' imprisonment. The legislation, which passed with cross-party support, also criminalizes nudification—the use of AI tools to digitally remove clothing from photographs—and establishes enhanced sentences when the victim is a minor or when the material is shared online. The law is part of a broader package targeting digital gender-based violence and follows high-profile cases in which Spanish schoolgirls were targeted with AI-manipulated imagery shared via messaging apps.

Detection of nudification and deepfake distribution before the material circulates is now operationally achievable. As a Meta Business Partner with real-time monitoring across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, Guardii's protection-for-women and anti-CSAM modules intercept hostile image-sharing at the moment of send, identifying the coercive or harassing pattern without storing or exposing the content. When a minor is the target, the system surfaces the threat to a parent, school safeguarding lead or relevant authority in real time, enabling intervention before reputational harm compounds and before the image reaches a wider audience, closing the operational window that legislation alone cannot.