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A bill aimed at criminalizing nonconsensual sexual imagery and forcing online platforms to take it down got a big boost from the White House on Monday.
Reviving the "Be Best" online safety campaign she started in President Donald Trump's first term, first lady Melania Trump held a Capitol Hill roundtable with lawmakers and victims of online sexual abuse to tout the Take It Down Act. They urged the House to take up and pass the bill, which has already passed the Senate, so that Trump can sign it into law.
"It's heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content, like deepfakes," Melania Trump said. "Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themself freely, without the looming threat of exploitation or harm."
The first lady's support gives new momentum to a bill that was bipartisan in origin.
The Take It Down Act, one of several bills seeking to address nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) and AI deepfakes, was introduced last year by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota). It almost became law as part of a broader stopgap spending measure in December before that bill was scrapped under pressure from Trump and Elon Musk.
It passed the Senate for a second time earlier this month on a voice vote, and Reps. MarÃa Elvira Salazar (R-Florida) and Madeleine Dean (D-Pennsylvania) have reintroduced companion legislation in the House. The bill has also gained the support of some major tech companies, including Meta.
On Monday, it was Republicans who led the proceedings.
Cruz and Trump were joined by survivors of online sexual abuse and family members of victims, all of whom spoke in support of the bill.
Among them was Elliston Berry, who was 14 years old when a classmate at her Texas high school used an AI "undress" app to generate false pornographic images of her and posted them on Snapchat. She said her school claimed it was "out of their control" and that Snapchat declined to take the images down until Cruz intervened on her behalf.
Another speaker was South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey (R), whose 17-year-old son killed himself in 2022 after a scammer allegedly posed as a young woman to entice him to send nude images, then threatened to publish them if he didn't pay - a scheme known as "sextortion."
While there's broad agreement that new laws are needed to address NCII, some advocacy groups and First Amendment scholars say Take It Down is the wrong approach.
"NCII is a serious problem, but unfortunately this isn't a serious bill," said Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at the digital rights group Fight for the Future. He said it threatens end-to-end encryption, a tool for private communication, and fails to address concerns that people will abuse the takedown process.
"Anyone that knows how to exploit the system can have any image they do not like removed, not just intimate images," Lane said.
India McKinney, director of federal affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called it "a censorship bill" that will lead platforms to take down all kinds of legitimate content because they won't have time to sift the valid takedown requests from the malicious ones.
The bill's takedown provisions could face a First Amendment challenge if they become law.
The parts of the bill that criminalize the publication of authentic, nonconsensual sexual imagery - including what's sometimes called "revenge porn" - are likely on solid legal ground, said Mary Anne Franks, president of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and a George Washington University law professor. Many states already prohibit such imagery, and their laws have survived court challenges, she added.
But the parts dealing with AI fakes - or "digital forgeries" - are less clear-cut and need more careful review, Franks added. And she agreed with Lane and McKinney that the takedown requirements risk chilling a much wider range of content than they're intended to address.
"The takedown provisions seem unconstitutional on their face," Franks said. She noted that the bill contains a severability clause that could allow some portions to stand even if others are struck down.
Asked whether she thought the bill's passage would be a net positive despite its flaws, Franks said, "That's a tough one."