Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) celebrated the signing into law of bipartisan legislation she supported to target the malicious use of AI and empower revenge porn victims. The TAKE IT DOWN Act would criminalize the publication of non-consensual, sexually exploitative images – including AI-generated deepfakes – and require platforms to remove images within 48 hours of notice. President Donald Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law today.
“I’ve seen firsthand how technology can drive our economy and deliver incredible innovations, but we have to make sure that there are guardrails in place to keep people safe,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “I’m proud to support passage of this commonsense bipartisan law to protect and empower victims of real and deepfake revenge porn.”
The TAKE IT DOWN Act would protect and empower victims of real and deepfake non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) by:
- Criminalizing the publication of NCII in interstate commerce. The bill makes it illegal for a person to knowingly publish NCII on social media and other online platforms.
- Protecting good faith efforts to assist victims. The bill permits the good faith disclosure of NCII, such as to law enforcement, in narrow cases.
- Requiring websites to take down NCII upon notice from the victim. Social media and other websites would be required to remove NCII, pursuant to a valid request from a victim, within 48 hours. Websites must also make reasonable efforts to remove copies of the images. The FTC is charged with enforcement of this section.
- Protecting lawful speech. The bill is narrowly tailored to criminalize knowingly publishing NCII without chilling lawful speech.
Senator Cortez Masto has been working to protect communities from bad actors abusing new technologies. Cortez Masto’s bipartisanIOGAN Act, which directs the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology to research technology for detecting deepfakes, was signed into law in 2020. The Senator has also cosponsored the EARN IT Act, which amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to remove internet service providers’ blanket immunity from Federal civil, State criminal, and State civil child sexual abuse material laws, holding them accountable for its distribution.
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