The creation and distribution of sexualized images of real people created with the help of artificial intelligence should explicitly be punishable in the future. Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) announced this in an interview with Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung to. “We need to protect those affected even better from such AI image manipulations,” said Hubig. “We need criminal offenses that specifically address the problem of digital image manipulation.”
The minister was dismayed by the so-called “Bikini now” trend. It is frightening if, for example, the AI Grok generates masses of lewd images of women on Platform X – for example by dressing them in provocative bikinis without their consent. Personal rights are being systematically violated.
However, the ministry says their plan for a criminal standard against so-called deepfakes is not a reaction to Grok’s bikini fakes. It is not a “Lex Grok”. The minister had already made the plan for this in 2025.
In the last legislative period, the Ministry of Justice had Marco Buschmann (FDP) a deepfake criminal standard has yet to be rejected. Such forgeries are already punishable under the Art Copyright Act because they violate the right to one’s own image. However, the threat of punishment here is rather low, with a maximum of one year in prison or a fine.
Also penalties for catcalling and voyeurism
That is why the federal states have repeatedly called for a special criminal law against deepfakes. At Bavaria’s initiative, the Federal Council presented a draft law last summer. This provides for the introduction of a new paragraph 201b in the Criminal Code, which criminalizes the “violation of personal rights through digital forgery”. Prison sentences of up to two years or fines are planned.
Now Federal Justice Minister Hubig wants to act herself. Unlike her predecessor Buschmann, she is not afraid of new criminal standards. It already had paragraphs before against verbal sexual harassment (“catcalling”) and voyeuristic recordings announced.
In the first quarter of this year, Hubig wants to present the draft for a “digital violence protection law”. This should contain criminal standards against deepfakes and voyeuristic recordings – but not regulations on catcalling, as this does not occur digitally.
The law should also include civil law measures that help those affected to defend themselves against the spread of sexualized or derogatory images. This is intended to give them access to information against internet providers in order to make it easier to determine the identity of anonymous perpetrators. They should also be able to request that perpetrator accounts be blocked, even for anonymous users.
Minister Buschmann had already presented a discussion draft to strengthen private legal prosecution on the Internet in December 2024. However, this was limited to civil law and did not contain any new criminal standards. After the federal election, the draft remained in the drawers. Hubig can now build on Buschmann’s preparatory work.