Bipartisan, bicameral bill empowers victims of revenge porn by forcing social media to remove explicit images

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bipartisan, bicameral TAKE IT DOWN Act, authored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and co-led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), by a vote of 409-2. Having passed the Senate in February, the TAKE IT DOWN Act now heads to the President to be signed into law.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including AI-generated NCII (or “deepfake revenge pornography”), and requires social media and similar websites to remove such content within 48 hours of notice from a victim.

Upon passage of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, Sen. Cruz said:

“The passage of the TAKE IT DOWN Act is a historic win in the fight to protect victims of revenge porn and deepfake abuse. This victory belongs first and foremost to the heroic survivors who shared their stories and the advocates who never gave up. By requiring social media companies to take down this abusive content quickly, we are sparing victims from repeated trauma and holding predators accountable. This day would not have been possible without the courage and perseverance of Elliston Berry, Francesca Mani, Breeze Liu, and Brandon Guffey, whose powerful voices drove this legislation forward. I am especially grateful to my colleagues—including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Maria Salazar, Rep. Madeleine Dean, First Lady Melania Trump, and House Leadership—for locking arms in this critical mission to protect Americans from online exploitation.”

Sen. Klobuchar said:

“We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse. These images can ruin lives and reputations, but now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable.”

The House companion was introduced by Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.).

Rep. Salazar said:

“The TAKE IT DOWN Act's passage is a bipartisan victory to protect victims of real and deepfake revenge pornography. This bill shows Congress at its best, working together to empower victims, especially women and girls. It equally holds offenders and Big Tech accountable.”

Rep. Dean said:

“The TAKE IT DOWN Act’s passage is a significant step forward in Congress’ responsibility to protect the privacy and dignity of Americans against bad actors and the most harmful developments of AI. It takes only minutes to create a deepfake or share intimate images without consent, yet the lasting consequences devastate its victims — often girls and women. Our bill requires platforms to remove these horrifying images and videos from the Internet within 48 hours. I’m deeply grateful to work with Sen. Klobuchar, Sen. Cruz, and Rep. Salazar to create this bipartisan federal law.”

Ms. Elliston Berry, high school student and advocate for fellow victims of deepfake pornography, said:

“When I was just 14 years old, my life changed forever after a boy at my school used AI to create deepfake images of me. I knew I could never go back and undo what he did, but I wanted to do anything to help prevent this from happening to others. With the passage of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, we can protect future generations from having to experience the pain I went through. The outpouring of support for this bill has been amazing to see, and I've been truly inspired by how so many of America's leaders and major tech organizations have come together to promote this important cause. I am grateful to Sen. Cruz and Sen. Klobuchar for listening to my story and to First Lady Melania Trump for helping bring even more attention to our efforts to turn this horrible situation into something good.”

More than 120 organizations representing victim advocacy groups, law enforcement, and tech industry leaders have voiced their support for the legislation, including Meta, Snap, Google, Microsoft, TikTok, X, Amazon, Bumble, Match Group, Entertainment Software Association, IBM, TechNet, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Internet Works, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network), and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).

In March, Sen. Cruz and Rep. Salazar hosted a bipartisan roundtable with First Lady Melania Trump to hear from victims of revenge and deepfake pornography and urge the House to pass the bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act. During his State of the Union address, President Trump emphasized the bill’s importance and said, “I look forward to signing it into law.”

Other notable endorsements came from the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of House lawmakers evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and Paris Hilton, who called the bill “a crucial step toward ending non-consensual image sharing online.”

During the 118^th Congress, the bill unanimously passed the Senate Commerce Committee and the full Senate.

Background:

While nearly every state has a law protecting people from non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including 30 states with laws explicitly covering sexual deepfakes, these state laws vary in classification of crime and penalty and have uneven criminal prosecution. Further, victims struggle to have images depicting them removed from websites, increasing the likelihood the images are continuously spread and victims are retraumatized.

In 2022, Congress passed legislation creating a civil cause of action for victims to sue individuals responsible for publishing NCII. However, bringing a civil action can be incredibly impractical. It is time-consuming, expensive, and may force victims to relive trauma. Further exacerbating the problem, it is not always clear who is responsible for publishing the NCII. 

The TAKE IT DOWN Act would protect and empower victims of real and deepfake NCII while respecting speech by:

• Criminalizing the publication of NCII in interstate commerce. The bill makes it unlawful for a person to knowingly publish NCII on social media and other online platforms. NCII is defined to include realistic, computer-generated pornographic images and videos that depict identifiable, real people. The bill also clarifies that a victim consenting to the creation of an authentic image does not mean that the victim has consented to its publication.
• Protecting good faith efforts to assist victims. The bill permits the good faith disclosure of NCII, such as to law enforcement. 
• Requiring websites to take down NCII upon notice from the victim. Social media and other websites would be required to have in place procedures 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 Federal Trade Commission is charged with enforcement of this section. 
• Protecting lawful speech. The bill is narrowly tailored to criminalize knowingly publishing NCII without chilling lawful speech. The bill conforms to current First Amendment jurisprudence by requiring that computer-generated NCII meet a “reasonable person” test for appearing indistinguishable from an authentic image.

To read the bill text, click HERE.

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