The invoice, backed by First Girl Melania Trump, obtained overwhelming bipartisan help.
A ban on deepfake and revenge pornography handed the Home with near-unanimous help on April 28, clearing its last congressional hurdle.
The Take It Down Act handed in a 409–2 vote, with simply two members voting in opposition to it.
It now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk, the place it’s anticipated to gather his signature.
The invoice goals to criminalize the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, typically known as revenge porn, which is more and more being generated via synthetic intelligence (AI).
The ensuing photos and movies, though faux, can seem deceptively genuine.
The measure would give on-line platforms not more than 48 hours to take away specific content material on the request of an identifiable particular person featured within the photos.
Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.), the invoice’s sponsor within the Home, mentioned it will assist to stop cyberbullying and “suicide born out of disgrace.”
“It’s outrageously sick to make use of photos, the face, the voice, the likeness of a younger, weak feminine, to control them, to extort them, and to humiliate them publicly, only for enjoyable, only for revenge,” Salazar mentioned on the Home ground forward of the vote.
“And that’s the reason we created this invoice, to cease the abuse spreading like wildfire proper now on social media.”
Launched within the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the invoice unanimously handed the higher chamber in February and went on to safe the backing of First Girl Melania Trump.
“This laws is crucial for addressing the rising issues associated to on-line security, defending particular person rights, and selling a more healthy digital setting,” the primary girl mentioned throughout a congressional roundtable dialogue on March 3.
“By advocating this invoice, Congress can take an essential step towards guaranteeing accountability and fostering accountable on-line habits.
“The Take It Down Act invoice represents a robust step towards justice, therapeutic, and unity.”
On the identical occasion, Elliston Berry, the Texas teen who impressed the invoice, recounted the horror she felt when she realized that she had turn out to be a sufferer of deepfake pornography when she was 14.
“Concern, shock, and disgust have been simply a number of the many feelings I felt,” Berry mentioned. “I felt accountable and commenced in charge myself and was ashamed to inform my mother and father, regardless of doing nothing flawed.”
Berry’s mom repeatedly contacted Snapchat to get the faux photos taken down. It wasn’t till 9 months later, when Cruz’s workplace bought concerned, that the photographs have been faraway from the social media platform.
“It mustn’t take a sitting senator or sitting member of Congress choosing up the cellphone to get an image down or a video down,” Cruz mentioned on the roundtable.
“It must be the best of each American. Each teenage woman victimized ought to have the best to get this rubbish taken down, and this invoice will give them that proper as a matter of federal legislation.”
The following day, Berry was one of many first girl’s particular visitors for the president’s joint tackle to Congress.
“As soon as it passes the Home, I look ahead to signing that invoice into legislation,” President Trump mentioned whereas delivering his remarks.
He’ll now have that chance, as almost all Home members, save for Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) agreed it ought to turn out to be legislation.
Massie, explaining his vote in an X publish, wrote: “I’m voting NO as a result of I really feel it is a slippery slope, ripe for abuse, with unintended penalties.”
He shared an article citing some critics’ fears that the legislation could possibly be wielded in opposition to protected speech with none recourse for these customers.
Nonetheless, the president seems poised to signal the invoice with the primary girl’s blessing.
Heralding the measure’s passage by way of X, Melania Trump wrote that she was “honored to have contributed to guiding it via Congress.”
“By safeguarding kids from hurtful on-line habits as we speak, we take an important step in nurturing our leaders of tomorrow,” she mentioned.
