Home passes “Take it Down Act,” sending revenge porn invoice backed by Melania Trump to president’s desk
Washington — The Home handed a bipartisan invoice Monday that makes it a federal crime to put up actual and pretend sexually specific imagery on-line of an individual with out their consent, sending the laws that was backed by first woman Melania Trump to the president’s desk.
The invoice, referred to as the “Take It Down Act,” cleared the decrease chamber in a 409-2 vote. The 2 “no” votes got here from Republicans. The Senate unanimously handed the measure in February.
The laws requires social media firms and different web sites to take away photos and movies, together with deepfakes generated by synthetic intelligence, inside 48 hours after a sufferer’s request.
“In case you’re a sufferer of revenge porn or AI-generated specific imagery, your life adjustments perpetually,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, mentioned at a March 3 roundtable selling the invoice.
Cruz, who launched the invoice, recalled the expertise of a teenage sufferer, Elliston Berry, whose classmate used an app to create specific photos of her after which despatched them to her classmates. Berry’s mom had tried unsuccessfully to get Snapchat to take away the pictures for months earlier than she contacted Cruz’s workplace for assist.
“It shouldn’t take a sitting senator or sitting member of Congress selecting up the telephone to get an image down or video down,” Cruz mentioned.
The primary woman, who hardly ever seems in public, attended the March dialogue on the U.S. Capitol to advocate for the invoice’s passage within the Home.
“It is heartbreaking to witness younger teenagers, particularly ladies, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious on-line content material like deep fakes,” she mentioned. “This poisonous atmosphere will be severely damaging.”
The primary woman applauded Congress after its passage and mentioned the bipartisan vote made a “highly effective assertion that we stand united in defending the dignity, privateness, and security of our youngsters.”
“I’m grateful to the Members of Congress — each within the Home and Senate — who voted to guard the well-being of our youth,” she mentioned in an announcement.
In keeping with the FBI, in recent times there have been an alarming variety of circumstances the place victims have been extorted which have resulted in suicide. Lawmakers mentioned they hope the invoice will save lives by offering recourse for victims.
“The mission of this invoice is straightforward, profound and lengthy lasting. It stops cyber abuse. It prevents the bullying of 1 youngster towards one other, and much more importantly, it prevents suicide born out of disgrace,” Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, who cosponsored the laws within the Home, mentioned Monday throughout ground debate.
Meta, which owns Fb and Instagram, in addition to TikTok and Snapchat have all mentioned they help the laws.
Digital rights teams, nevertheless, have warned that the laws as written may result in the suppression of lawful speech, together with authentic pornography, and doesn’t comprise protections towards bad-faith takedown requests.
