North Miami-Dade News

The United States Senate has unanimously approved S. 4569, the Senate's version of the TAKE IT DOWN Act (H.R. 8989), which was introduced by Representatives María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Madeleine Dean (D-PA). This legislation aims to protect victims of both real and ultra-fake "revenge pornography," a crime increasingly affecting young people across the nation. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (R-MN) led a bipartisan coalition to present and pass this bill in the Senate.

The rise of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), commonly known as "revenge pornography," alongside advancements in artificial intelligence, necessitates decisive legal protections for victims, most of whom are women and girls. The TAKE IT DOWN Act penalizes the publication of these harmful images and mandates their swift removal from websites.

"By voting for the TAKE IT DOWN Act, the Senate took a stand to protect women and girls victimized by malicious actors who steal their images to create fake revenge pornography," said Representative María Elvira Salazar. "To my colleagues in the House: let's join the Senate and pass this bill to protect these innocent victims NOW!"

Representative Salazar is recognized as a leading voice in Congress advocating for Americans' rights over their voices and images against AI abuses, as well as pursuing those who exploit these rights for personal gain.

"The passage of the TAKE IT DOWN Act by the Senate is an important step forward in Congress's responsibility to quickly regulate some of AI's most harmful developments and urgently defend victims and survivors from ultra-fake exploiters and non-consensual intimate images. We must defend victims and ensure these images are removed from the internet. I look forward to working with Congresswoman Salazar on addressing these critical issues," stated Representative Madeleine Dean.

"In recent months, brave victims of AI-generated 'ultra-fake' revenge porn have shared their stories to raise awareness among lawmakers about efforts to stop this despicable behavior. Passing our bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act will give innocent victims, many of whom are teenagers, an opportunity to seek justice against those posting abusive images. It will also hold big tech companies accountable by ensuring websites promptly remove these repugnant fake videos and photographs. For young victims and their parents, these ultra-fake contents require urgent attention and legal protection. I will continue working with my colleagues in Washington so that this commonsense bipartisan legislation passes swiftly through the House onto the President's desk for enactment into law," said Senator Ted Cruz.

"We must provide online abuse victims with necessary legal protections when intimate images are shared without consent, especially now that ultra-fake content creates new horrific opportunities for abuse. This bipartisan legislation builds on my work ensuring that victims can have such material removed from social media platforms while enabling law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable," remarked Senator Amy Klobuchar.

BACKGROUND:

The TAKE IT DOWN Act addresses inconsistent or nonexistent state-level legislation protecting victims from ultra-fake pornographic images. While nearly all states have laws protecting citizens from revenge pornography, only 20 states explicitly cover non-consensual intimate ultra-fakes with significant variation in offense classification, penalties, or criminal prosecution within those states. Victims also struggle with timely removal of such representations from websites potentially leading to further dissemination and retraumatization.

In 2022, Congress passed legislation creating a civil cause of action allowing NCII publication victims to sue responsible parties; however, civil actions can be impractical due to time consumption, costliness, or forcing trauma reliving upon plaintiffs—compounded by unclear accountability regarding NCII publishers.

The TAKE IT Down Act addresses these issues while safeguarding free speech by:

- Penalizing NCII publication or threats thereof within interstate commerce;

- Protecting good faith efforts aiding victim assistance through good faith NCII disclosure for law enforcement purposes or medical treatment;

- Mandating website removal following victim notification within 48 hours;

- Requiring computer-generated NCIIs meet “reasonable person” realism standards aligning current First Amendment jurisprudence.