Take It Down Act

President Donald Trump, First Lady Sign ‘Take It Down’ Act

President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law today.

The legislation targets nonconsensual sharing of nude and explicit images online.

“This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit images posted without subject’s consent,” Mr. Trump spoke alongside First Lady Melania Trump at Monday’s signing ceremony.

“We will not tolerate online exploitation.”

The Take It Down Act targets three common kinds of online exploitation — “revenge porn,” explicit AI-deepfakes and sextortion — by making it illegal to share, or threaten to share, explicit images of a person online without their permission.

Penalties apply equally to real and AI-generated images.

“With the rise of AI image generation, women have been harassed with deepfakes and other explicit images distributed against their will,” the President addressed AI abuse specifically.

“It’s just so horribly wrong … Today, we’re making it totally illegal.”

Focus on the Family’s Vice President of External Relations, Tim Goeglein, attended the ceremony on Focus’ behalf.

“Those of us at Focus on the Family in Washington have championed this outstanding legislation from the beginning,” he told the Daily Citizen, expounding:

The strength of this law is that it builds in real safeguards for people who have been immeasurably damaged and hurt.
Although it doesn’t happen very often in Washington, it was heartening that so many members of Congress worked together in a bipartisan manner to get this over the finish line.

First Lady Melania Trump, who helped shepherd the Take It Down Act through Congress, also thanked Congressmembers for putting politics aside in favor of passing the bill. She signed the legislation after the president, who thanked her for her leadership.

“America is blessed to have such a dedicated and compassionate first lady,” he praised.

The Take It Down Act helps parents protect their children in what can often feel like a lawless online universe. The Daily Citizen is grateful for the first family’s leadership and legislators’ willingness to pass family-first legislation.

To learn more about the Take It Down Act, and why its so important, click on our coverage below.

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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,

A friend called to tell me that a video of me was circulating on Pornhub. At first, I thought it was a mistake. I have never even visited Pornhub. But when I clicked on the link, I saw my face on a pornographic video. The devastation I felt is indescribable. I was humiliated.

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:

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 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.

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:

Gavin Guffey was a South Carolina kid. Smart. Kind. 17 yearsold. He was targeted by an online predator and didn’t live to see justice.
But his dad, State Rep. Brandon Guffey, made sure his death wouldn’t be in vain. Yesterday, we passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, giving victims a clear, powerful path to fight back against the monsters who exploit them online.

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

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First Lady Melania Trump Celebrates Committee Passage of Bill Targeting Revenge Porn, Sextortion and Explicit Deepfakes

First Lady Melania Trump celebrated with lawmakers this week after the House Energy & Commerce Committee passed the Take It Down Act (H.R. 633) in a near unanimous, 49-to-1 vote.

“This marks a significant step in our bipartisan effort to safeguard our children from online threats,” Mrs. Trump wrote Monday. “I urge Congress to swiftly pass this important legislation.”

The Take It Down Act would make it illegal to share, or threaten to share, nude images and videos without consent. Violators would face up to three years in jail. The bill also requires websites and social media companies to remove explicit images within 48 hours of a victim’s request.

“I was only fourteen years old when one of my classmates created deepfake, AI nudes of me and distributed them on social media,” Elliston Berry, now fifteen, wrote in her own statement. “I was shocked, violated and felt unsafe going to school.

She continued:

Today is an important milestone towards [the Take It Down Act] becoming law, so that no other girl has to go through what I went through without legal protections in place.

The first lady invited Berry to attend President Trump’s joint address to Congress in March. The president praised both women for their commitment to the bill, promising to sign it into law once it passed the House of Representatives.

The Senate passed the Take It Down Act in a rare unanimous vote on February 13.

Bipartisan support for the legislation reflects lawmakers’ desire to protect children from some of the most common forms of internet exploitation.

Berry was a victim of explicit AI deepfakes — images and videos edited to make it appear as though a person is performing a sexual act. Though the photos may be fake, the damage they do to victims is very real.

The Take It Down Act punishes those who distribute of explicit “digital forgeries” with up to two years in prison for images featuring adults, and up to three years in prison for images featuring children.

The bill applies the same penalties to “revenge porn,” a colloquial term describing when explicit images are shared to harm someone mentally, financially or reputationally. It’s commonly associated with bad breakups between boyfriends and girlfriends that had once shared nude images consensually.

The Take It Down Act also prohibits people from threatening to share someone’s nude images, which occurs in sextortion schemes.

Online sextortionists create fake social media accounts to solicit nude images from unsuspecting victims — frequently teenage boys. Once scammers get their hands on explicit photos, they blackmail victims for money in exchange for keeping the images hidden.

In February, sixteen-year-old Elijah Heacock took his own life after getting trapped in a sextortion scam. His mother, Shannon Cronister-Heacock, praised the Energy & Commerce Committee for passing the Act on Monday.

“In February, our family mourned the loss of our loving son and brother, Elijah Heacock, after he fell victim to an extortion scheme on the internet,” Cronister-Heacock wrote, continuing,

We are grateful for the support of Chairman Guthrie and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for passing the Take It Down Act today to ensure that no parent, sibling or loved one experiences a similar tragedy in the future.

The bill would penalize threatening to share nude images of minors like Elijah by 30 months in prison, and threatening to share explicit pictures of adults by 18 months.

The House of Representatives must approve the Take It Down Act before the president can sign it into law. House Speaker Mike Johnson has previously voiced support for the bill:

“As the dark side of tech advances, these unspeakable evils of [explicit deepfakes, revenge porn and sextortion] become part of culture, and the laws have to keep up,” Johnson told a roundtable of supportive lawmakers last month.

“We are anxious to put it on the floor in the House and get it to President Trump’s desk for a signature,” he concluded.

The Daily Citizen will continue publishing updates as this important bill makes its way toward the White House.

Additional Articles and Resources

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