President Trump signed a bill against revenge porn into law today at a White House ceremony. It’s called the “Take It Down Act” because in addition to criminalizing revenge porn it also requires social media companies to remove images posted without consent within 48 hours.
The Take It Down Act makes publishing such content illegal, subjecting violators to mandatory restitution and criminal penalties such as prison, fines or both. The bill also establishes criminal penalties for people who make threats to publish the intimate visual depictions, some of which are created using artificial intelligence.
The measure requires websites, through enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission, to remove such imagery after they receive requests from victims within 48 hours and to make efforts to take down copies, as well.
“With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deepfakes and other explicit images distributed against their will. This is … wrong, and it’s just so horribly wrong,” Trump said at an afternoon signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. “It’s a very abusive situation like, in some cases, people have never seen before. And today we’re making it totally illegal.”
Trump gave most of the credit for bringing the bill along to his wife Melania. Even the NY Times noticed Trump seemed unusually happy she was present for the ceremony.
The bill-signing ceremony at the White House was her highest profile appearance yet. The president seemed thrilled to stand by her side.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen such a level of bipartisanship, and it’s a beautiful thing,” he chirped. “I’m not even sure you realize, honey, you know, a lot of the Democrats and Republicans don’t get along so well. You’ve made them get along.”…
They sat beside each other, he scrawled his signature across the bill, and then, just for the hell of it, he handed the pen to his wife. “You want to sign it anyway?” he said. “Come on, sign it anyway. She deserves to sign it.”
And so she did.
The bill originally started with an unlikely bipartisan pair of senators and brought to the First Lady’s attention on Inauguration Day.
The legislation, introduced by Senators Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, is the first internet content law to clear Congress since 2018, when lawmakers approved legislation to fight online sex trafficking. And though it focuses on revenge porn and deepfakes, the bill is seen as an important step toward regulating internet companies that have for decades escaped government scrutiny.
Ms. Klobuchar said she brought the bill to the attention of Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, while speaking with them at an inauguration-day lunch.
The senator said she was moved by the stories of families whose children had experienced harassment, bullying or mental and emotional harm because of these images.
Mrs. Trump held a roundtable event to promote the bill in March.
In her first public appearance since President Donald Trump returned to office, the first lady said she hoped to raise awareness of the harm caused by nonconsensual intimate imagery and encouraged lawmakers to pass the Take it Down Act…
Three female victims of AI-generated pornographic images spoke at the roundtable, including two women from Texas and New Jersey who were 14 years old when their likenesses were used to create fake pornographic images that were later circulated online.
“I was 14 years old when a classmate created AI nudes of me from an innocent social media picture,” said Ellison Berry. “I was 14 years old when I was violated all over social media, and I was just 14 years old when my innocence was stripped away.”
Berry said she reached out to her school, who said the situation was out of its control. It was only after her parents reached out to Cruz’s office and his office demanded that the CEO of Snapchat remove the image that it was taken down.
The bill passed unanimously in the Senate and by a vote of 409-2 in the House. It’s good to see that the safety of women from harassment and the innocence of children is still something both parties can agree on. The media gave President Biden loads of credit for pushing along bipartisan bills during his term. Hopefully, President Trump will get the same recognition even though this bill does not have a trillion dollar price tag.
Here’s video of the signing.
