EU faces pressure for anti-deepfake laws after near-unanimous vote

European lawmakers are facing renewed calls for dedicated anti-deepfake legislation following a near-unanimous parliamentary vote on digital safety measures. Social media users and policy advocates argue that existing frameworks under the EU AI Act lack sufficient specificity to combat malicious synthetic media effectively. The recent vote, while broadly supported, has exposed perceived enforcement gaps regarding non-consensual intimate imagery and political disinformation. Critics contend that current transparency obligations for AI providers are inadequate without targeted criminal penalties for deepfake creation and distribution. This debate underscores the tension between broad horizontal AI regulation and the demand for vertical, harm-specific statutes. European Commission officials have not yet announced new legislative proposals but face mounting pressure from civil society groups to address these deficiencies before the next election cycle. The discourse reflects growing frustration with the pace of regulatory adaptation to generative AI capabilities.