First Lady Melania Trump Celebrates House’s Passage of Take It Down Act
First Lady Melania Trump celebrated the House of Representatives’ near-unanimous passage of the Take It Down Act yesterday.
The act makes it illegal to publish nude images, both real and AI-generated, without the subject’s consent. It also requires social media companies remove nonconsensual explicit images within 48 hours of a victim’s request.
“Today’s bipartisan passage of the Take It Down Act is a powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy and safety of our children,” Mrs. Trump wrote in a press release.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed support for the bill. The Senate unanimously passed it in February. Yesterday, April 28, the House followed suit, approving the Take It Down Act in a landslide, 409-2 vote.
The first lady helped whip up support for the bill, repeatedly urging legislators to prioritize children’s health and wellbeing over party loyalty. In March, she attended President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress with Elliston Berry, a teenage victim of explicit AI deepfakes.
The president praised Mrs. Trump’s support of the Take It Down Act during his address, promising to sign it into law once it passed the House.
“Advancing this legislation has been a key focus since I returned to my role as First Lady this past January,” Mrs. Trump remarked in her press release. “I am honored to have contributed to guiding it through Congress.”
She further thanked members of congress for “voting to protect the well-being of our youth.”
The Take It Down Act addresses three common kinds of online exploitation: revenge porn, AI-generated porn and sextortion.
Revenge porn refers to nudge images published to humiliate or otherwise harm the subject. It’s commonly associated with disgruntled exes sharing explicit photos of a former romantic partner.
The Take It Down Act punishes revenge porn with up to two years in jail — three if the subject is a minor.
AI-generated porn, or “digital forgeries,” are images edited to make it look like a person is nude or performing a sexual act. When Berry was just 14, her classmates spread AI-generated porn with her face across social media.
Francesca Mani, another of the bill’s advocates, was also targeted by explicit deepfakes at only 14 years old. At a congressional roundtable in March, Mani emphasized the importance of imposing serious consequences on spreading nonconsensual, AI-generated pornography.
Breeze Liu was not a minor when she discovered deepfake porn with her face — but the consequences were no less severe. She says of her experience,
The Take It Down Act imposes the same consequences on publishing explicit deepfakes as on publishing real nude images, recognizing that the consequence of publishing AI-generated porn are very real — even if the images are not.
Senator Ted Cruz, who sponsored the act in the Senate, thanked Berry, Mani and Liu by name in a statement on X:
Brandon Guffey is a South Carolina state representative. In 2022, his 17-year-old son, Gavin, ended his life less than two hours after being contacted by a sextortionist.
Sextortion scams use nude images to blackmail victims — usually young men. Sextortionists create fake social media accounts to strike up a romantic exchange of nude images. Once they get their hands on someone’s explicit photos, scammers ask for money in exchange for keeping the images private.
The FBI believes at least 20 teenage boys have committed suicide since 2021 after falling victim to a sextortion scheme.
Representative Guffey is a vocal supporter of the Take It Down Act, which punishes threatening to share nude images of minors like Gavin with up to 30 months in prison.
South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace posted a tribute to the Guffeys on Monday:
President Trump must sign the Take It Down Act before it becomes law. The Daily Citizen will continue reporting on this bill’s journey to becoming a law.
Additional Articles and Resources
First Lady Supports Bill Targeting Deepfakes, Sextortion and Revenge Porn
Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do
Meta Takes Steps to Prevent Kids From Sexting
Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?
Zuckerberg Implicated in Meta’s Failures to Protect Children
Instagram Content Restrictions Don’t Work, Tests Show
‘The Dirty Dozen List’ — Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation
Taylor Swift Deepfakes Should Inspire Outrage — But X Isn’t to Blame
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