The effort to address revenge porn and deepfake technology has advanced with the unanimous passage of the Take It Down Act in the Senate. The bill, which is now pending in the House, has been supported by Senator Ted Cruz, who has called for its swift approval. According to Click2Houston, the legislation seeks to establish federal penalties for the creation or distribution of AI-generated explicit material and mandates the removal of such content by online platforms, typically within 48 hours of notification. The proposed law includes provisions for fines and potential prison sentences of up to three years.
In an account that highlights the seriousness of the situation, Texas high school student Elliston Berry described waking up to find a manipulated deepfake pornography of herself, shared by a male classmate on Snapchat. "That morning, when I woke up, it was one of the worst feelings I've ever felt, feeling hopeless and feeling as if my entire innocence was stripped away," Berry confessed, as per a Statesman interview. It was after an agonizing eight months, and a call from Senator Cruz himself, that Snapchat eventually removed the images. Cruz's interaction with Berry spurred the drafting of the "TAKE IT DOWN" Act alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar, prompting bipartisan support for a bill that criminalizes the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images, whether real or computer-generated.
Further demonstrating the widespread damage caused by this invasive technology, South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey shared a personal and heart-wrenching narrative about his son Gavin, who tragically ended his life following a sexual extortion threat. "The threat of these images going viral – you can't hide the amount of shame," Guffey told Statesman. The TAKE IT DOWN Act aspires to place the power back into the hands of victims, providing them with recourse in an environment where the threat of public disgrace is a button-click away from being a life-altering or even life-ending reality.
Cruz said at a news conference, "It should not take a sitting U.S. senator or a sitting member of Congress to make a phone call to get this garbage down," highlighting the urgency and imperative of efficient legislative measures. The act could significantly shift the current landscape, wherein victims often face daunting obstacles to eliminate such malicious content from websites, which might be outside a singular state's jurisdiction – sometimes, taking months or even an unfeasible lawsuit to address the violation. With nearly 90 organizations throwing their support behind the TAKE IT DOWN Act, Cruz firmly believes that "If this bill is on the floor of the House, this bill will pass," as he told Statesman.
