Hobbs vetoes bill targeting child, revenge pornography

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(The Center Square) - Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill attempting to stop the spread of child pornography and revenge porn, citing free speech concerns.

Hobbs on Friday vetoed House Bill 2133, which would have required websites hosting sexual material, including artificial intelligence-generated sexual depictions, to verify that each person depicted in the material is of legal age and consented to it.

HB 2133, also known as the Protect Act, would have required these websites to keep verification records for seven years.

Republicans, who have majorities in both houses of the Legislature, backed the measure but lack enough seats to override the Democratic governor's veto

The legislation provided exemptions to news organizations, public-interest publications, scientific materials, educational materials, search engines and others.

On top of this, the bill exempted digitally altered material made for the purposes of parody, comedy, artistic expression and criticism of matters of public concern.

In Hobbs’ veto letter to House Speaker Steve Montenegro, R-Surprise, the governor said HB 2133 “has a chilling effect on free speech and would violate First Amendment rights to engage in satirical discourse about elected officials."

Furthermore, the governor said state law already “covers AI-generated images for revenge porn” and the Take It Down Act, a federal law, ensures “Arizonans are not victimized online.”

The Take It Down Act requires online websites to remove intimate photos or videos shared on their platform without victims’ consent. The legislation requires the removal if victims ask for photos or videos to be taken down.

“My office attempted to work with the [bill] sponsor on ways to further protect victims without shielding politicians from criticism as HB 2133 does," Hobbs said. "Although the sponsor rebuffed those efforts in favor of a partisan approach that attempts to make political satire illegal, I remain committed to finding real bipartisan solutions to protecting Arizonans."

State Rep. Nick Kupper, R-Yuma, the sponsor for HB 2133, told The Center Square on Saturday that the veto of his bill was “disheartening.”

Kupper said the governor made “misleading statements” in her veto letter about his bill, adding that Arizona law and the Take It Down Act “do not do what [his] bill does.”

He noted these laws allow for the material to be uploaded to online platforms before anything happens.

“The problem is, and this was the whole need for my bill, once it's uploaded, the harm has been done to the individual who's in the content,” the state representative said.

According to Kupper, Hobbs' explanation in her veto letter about free speech concerns is a “bald-faced lie.”

The bill's exemption for satire is “airtight,” he said.  

The state representative said when he attempted to work with Hobbs on the legislation, her office wrote a “completely different bill.”

“That’s not working in good faith. That’s not trying to find a way to make this bill work,” he said.

Uldouz Wallace, the movie and TV actress who proposed the legislation to Kupper, told The Center Square on Saturday that she was “very disappointed” in the governor for vetoing HB 2133.

Wallace said Hobbs vetoing the bill is a “slap in the face” to victims of revenge porn and child pornography.

“It’s really disheartening because she’s a woman herself, so she should know better. Politicians like her should not be in any kind of power position,” she said.

The only people that would be impacted by HB 2133 are “pedophiles and predators that are trying to upload non-consensual content and child sexual abuse material,” said Wallace, who, in addition to acting, is a writer, producer and social media influencer.

She added that federal law does not include components of requiring “age verification and consent for uploaders.”

She said victims of child pornography and revenge porn still have to submit takedown requests after material has been uploaded to the internet.

Wallace previously told The Center Square that she was a victim of the 2014 iCloud hack/leak, in which hackers leaked private images of her and other celebrities online.

The actress said she spent millions of dollars attempting to get her private images removed from the internet.

Wallace, who runs a nonprofit called Foundation Ra, said her organization has done more than 200,000 takedown requests this year.

Kupper, meanwhile, said he plans to reintroduce the bill in the 2027 legislative session.

He told The Center Square that if Hobbs gets reelected as governor, she will “stop trying to even pretend to be moderate. She is going to go extremely far left on everything she does because it won’t hurt her election chances because she can’t be reelected” for a third term because of term limits.

The only way for this bill to become law is for Hobbs to lose to U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, in the gubernatorial election, Kupper said. In recent polls, Biggs has been ahead of U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, R-Scottsdale, in the July 21 Republican primary and is seen likely to run against Hobbs in the Nov. 3 general election.