Deepfake: Fake Kiss Photo of Georgia Mayor Beat the Law

Picture a photo of you, kissing someone who is not your spouse. It never happened. By the time you see it, other people already have. That is what happened to College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom, and this kind of deepfake (a fake image or video made by AI that looks real) is coming for ordinary people next.

Why a Deepfake Can Hurt You Before the Law Catches Up

Here's the short version. A deepfake image of the mayor started circulating online. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a Georgia Tech expert put the odds that it was made by AI at "99.99999%." So nobody serious thinks it's real. That's not the problem.

The problem is what happens next. The picture is already out. People have seen it, saved it and sent it along. Whether the deepfake is believable matters less than whether you can get help before it spreads. That's the part most of us don't think about until it's our face.

Mayor Broom put it plainly. She said our laws should give people a way to hold the creators accountable. Read that again. She isn't asking for a ban on AI technology. She's asking for someone to answer for the harm done with that technology.

Our laws should give people a way to hold its creators accountable.

Mayor Bianca Motley Broom, as reported by the CBS Atlanta coverage of the case

What the College Park deepfake tells us about who is next

A mayor is a public figure with a staff, a phone full of reporters and a platform to say "that's fake." Most of us have none of that. Think about a teacher, a nurse, a store manager, or a high school kid. Their deepfake lands in a group chat, a school feed or a boss's inbox, and nobody is standing by to explain. For a comprehensive overview, explore our comprehensive reverse image search resource.

That's my bold prediction: the College Park deepfake is a preview, not an outlier. More regular people will find that a deepfake image can hurt their reputation, relationships, school life or job before anyone decides who is to blame.

What is a deepfake generator?

A deepfake generator is software that uses AI to create or alter images, video and voice recordings of a real person, for example by swapping that person's face into an image or video. That is why the creator is so hard to pin down: the tool leaves little trace in the finished picture.

How Fast Does Deepfake Video Spread, and Why Is Removal So Slow?

Fast. Faster than any takedown. In the Taylor Swift case, a deepfake drew 45 million views and 24,000 reposts over 17 hours before it came down, according to Reality Defender. She had a giant team and a giant fan base. Most people have a shaky Wi-Fi connection and a phone number for customer support.

Then there's the re-upload problem. A takedown (when a platform removes a post) rarely ends it. According to Revelum, deepfake content that has circulated for under 24 hours is far easier to contain than content that has spread for 72 hours or more. Copies get mirrored, saved and passed through private chats. New accounts can post the deepfake again within hours.

So the clock starts the moment the deepfake appears. And the law, as a rule, doesn't start its clock until someone files a complaint, an investigator picks it up, and a prosecutor decides it fits a crime.

Who gets hurt first when a deepfake video or image goes viral?

The person in the picture, almost always. Then their family, their coworkers, their kid's classmates. The creator, meanwhile, is usually anonymous. Finding out who made a deepfake takes weeks or months of work, partly because investigators must get account data from the platforms involved, and by then the deepfake has a life of its own.

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Is the College Park Case Covered by Georgia Law on Deepfakes?

Short answer: it's murky. Georgia passed SB 9 in March 2025, and the research I reviewed describes it as aimed at specific harms, such as sexual imagery involving real people and child exploitation, along with election-related fakes. Per StackCyber, that is the state's main law on this topic. A deepfake that simply embarrasses you or damages your marriage, job or standing may not fit neatly into any of those boxes.

That's the gap. Nationally, StartBusinessByState counts 31 states with laws on deepfakes in elections, up from five before 2024. Great. But elections and sexual content are the easy cases. Everyday harassment through deepfake attacks is the hard one.

Type of deepfake harm	How the law treats it
Sexual deepfake images of a real person	Targeted by Georgia's SB 9, according to the research
Deepfake election content	Laws now exist in 31 states
A deepfake photo that ruins a reputation or relationship	Gray zone, no clear fast remedy
Deepfake scams that steal money	Handled as fraud, after the loss
Deepfake video or audio, such as a voice clone, used to impersonate someone	Usually pursued as fraud or impersonation, after the loss

What does the other side say?

Fair question, and the critics aren't silly. Bills to crack down on deepfakes have been considered by both the Georgia Senate and House but haven't advanced, amid worries about enforcement and creating a new crime. The ACLU of Georgia has warned that "applying felony charges to the publication of online content sets an unnerving and excessive precedent," per its press statement.

Their fear is real. A badly written law could sweep in satire, parody and political jokes. Nobody wants a prison sentence for a meme. But here's my take: the answer to a bad law isn't no law. It's a fast, narrow, civil path (think removal and identification first) that doesn't need a felony charge to work. Continue reading: Deepfake Fake Kiss Photo Of Georgia Mayor Outran The Law.

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How to Respond to Deepfake Attacks in the First Hour

Save proof first, then ask for removal, then ask who made it. Take screenshots with the web address and the date showing. Report the post to the platform right away. Then tell someone you trust, such as your boss or your child's school, before the rumor reaches them.

Here's the one thing worth watching for. Check where the picture came from before you decide it's real. If you've ever wondered whether a photo or profile is really who it claims to be, that's exactly the question facial comparison (software that measures how alike two faces are) exists to answer. Investigators use it to narrow down who is behind an account or an image, so the search for a creator starts days earlier. It doesn't replace a judge, but it shrinks the slow part.

And don't forward the deepfake "to ask if it's real." I know the instinct. Every share is another copy you can't pull back.

The College Park deepfake was exposed by an expert within days. Imagine the same deepfake of you, with no mayor's office and no Georgia Tech scientist to vouch for you. Who would stand up and say "that isn't her"?

Deepfakes: Frequently Asked Questions