Former Johnson aide Baroness Owen wants law to ban deepfake porn

At just 31, she’s one of the youngest members of the House of Lords.

Charlotte Owen – now Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge – was given a life peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list.

Now she’s putting forward her first Private Members’ Bill, to bring in a law banning the creation of deepfake pornography.

In an exclusive interview with Channel 4 News, Lady Owen sets out her first proposed bill to criminalise “disproportionately sexist” non-consensual deepfake explicit images, after she was controversially appointed to the House of Lords by Boris Johnson last year, aged just 30.

Lady Owen was given the life peerage by Johnson after serving as a political adviser at Number 10. But her appointment was heavily criticised at the time.  Some in Whitehall described it as “staggering” and “impossible to defend” because of her age and lack of experience. She says she was also subjected to lurid online trolling.

Baroness Owen told Cathy Newman she was “surprised” by her appointment and that she is still in touch with Johnson who ‘’always offers wonderful advice.’’  When asked why she thinks Boris appointed her to the Lords and what she was told at the time, she said ‘you simply get an email through..I think everybody is surprised, aren’t they? Nobody really expects such a thing, it’s an honour.”

Lady Owen was until recently the youngest member of the House of Lords. Her Private Members’ Bill, which is being introduced in the second chamber on Friday, is Owen’s first since she took her seat last July.

The 31-year-old described how new victims of deepfake pornography are being created ‘’every single week’’ and that ‘’women are losing the ability to choose who owns a naked image, an explicit video [of them].’’

Her bill seeks to make the creation of non-consensual sexually explicit images a crime, as well as the solicitation of such images  – that is, asking someone else to create one.  Currently only sharing such content is outlawed. The previous government had committed to going further, but the legislation fell when the election was called.

When asked if big tech companies are allowing deepfake imagery to proliferate on their platforms, Baroness Owen said: “Big tech does need to take responsibility. But the first step in this big puzzle needs to be giving victims the power to say this behaviour is wrong, it’s criminal.”

In response to whether this Bill is an attempt to answer critics who say she doesn’t deserve her place in the Lords, Baroness Owen said “It’s right as an unelected member of the House of Lords, like all my colleagues, that I do get a reasonable amount of scrutiny, but this bill is entirely about the victim and helping every single woman who at present risk becoming a victim of this technology.”

When asked about the disinformation of facts online and whether she personally worries that people don’t know what to believe about her, Baroness Owen said: “Falsehoods and the creation of falsehoods online is always wrong, and that’s why I want to be an advocate. I want to help push this law through to prevent more women becoming victims of this technology.”

Additional reporting by Emily Roe and Claire Sinka.