PIERRE, S.D. (MITCHELLNOW) – South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined a coalition of 47 Attorneys General in demanding major search engines and payment platforms take stronger action against the growing spread of computer-generated deepfake nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII), commonly known as “deepfakes.”

“These companies are not doing enough to limit the creation of these deepfakes and to protect the public,” said Attorney General Jackley. “These images are being used to embarrass, intimidate, and exploit people, especially women and girls. It must stop.”

In separate letters to the search engine companies and payment platforms, the Attorneys General write that 98 percent of fake online videos are deepfake nonconsensual intimate imagery.

During the 2024 South Dakota Legislature, Attorney General Jackley presented legislation that revised certain definitions to the state’s current child pornography laws and criminalized the possession, manufacturing, or distribution of child pornography to include Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated image and videos. That included “deepfake” images or videos of an actual child that have been manipulated to make it look like the subject is a child engaged in prohibited sexual acts and AI-generated images that do not depict any actual person but are created to look like a child engaged in prohibited sexual acts.

That legislation was part of Senate Bill 79 which was passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.

Other Attorneys General to sign onto the letters are from Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark and co-sponsored by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, are the attorneys general of Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Copies of the coalition’s letters are available here: www.naag.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/LTRS-Combined-Payment-and-Seach-Platform-FINAL.pdf