Poland proposes five-year prison terms for AI deepfakes as government warns tech platforms

Proposed criminal penalties for non-consensual deepfakes

Poland's ruling Civic Coalition parliamentary group presented a bill on Wednesday to introduce criminal liability for the creation, processing, and dissemination of non-consensual intimate deepfakes. Presented at a press conference in the Sejm by Monika Rosa, deputy head of the KO parliamentary club and chair of the Commission for Children and Youth, alongside MP Jolanta Niezgodzka, the amendment establishes prison sentences ranging from three months to five years for disseminating digitally generated sexual content without authorization. Rosa stated that domestic legislation has fallen behind technological capabilities while sexual abuse involving artificial intelligence continues to rise among adults, teenagers, and children.

Monika Rosa addressed the legal gaps and the impact on victims during the parliamentary briefing.

Placing a modified photo or video online causes real harm. A harm for which the perpetrator too rarely faces consequences, if they face them at all.

Child protection and synthetic abuse material

The legislative proposal targets both the fabrication of adult intimate images and the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) alongside online grooming. Lawmakers pointed to the widespread availability of automated nudify applications that digitally remove clothing from regular photographs. Rosa cited data from international child protection organization WeProtect, which recorded a year-on-year increase of up to 1300% in AI-generated synthetic child exploitation material. Research referenced by the commission indicates that synthetic abuse content shifts societal boundaries of acceptability while facilitating the exploitation of minors across digital platforms.

Cabinet warnings to global technology platforms

Parallel to the legislative effort, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski stated that Poland is prepared to block access to global social media platforms that systematically violate human welfare. Speaking in Warsaw at the Cyber24 Days conference alongside Education Minister Barbara Nowacka, Gawkowski argued that financial fines are no longer sufficient to enforce compliance. The panel was led by Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz, deputy chairman of the State Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors Under 15, who drew attention to the surge in AI-generated illicit material.

Gawkowski explicitly addressed platform operators during the conference discussion.

You strip someone, you provoke, you introduce into circulation something that is illegal in the Polish legal system? That means we take away your right to do so. Not in a simple way, saying: 'We politely ask you, listen, take down this content', but we say: 'You, X, you, Meta, you, Facebook, we will shut you down.'

Enforcement mechanisms and platform compliance

Gawkowski revealed that the ministry previously considered exercising its legal authority to block platform X in Poland after its integrated Grok artificial intelligence tool generated non-consensual nude images of users. Polish officials ultimately refrained from enforcing a national block while platform engineers restricted the model, contrasting with Turkey, which implemented an immediate geoblock. The government also faced domestic calls to act against Meta over fraudulent commercial advertisements misusing public figures' likenesses, raised by Polish businessman Rafał Brzoska. Drawing a historical comparison to the decades required to establish tobacco regulations in the twentieth century, Gawkowski argued that governments must establish and enforce cyber regulations within a few years to protect digital users.