President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act on Monday, a bipartisan law that enacts stricter penalties for distributing nonconsensual explicit images, including deepfakes and revenge porn.
The bill criminalizes the publication of such images, whether they’re authentic or AI-generated. Whoever publishes the photos or videos can face criminal penalties, including fines, imprisonment, and restitution.
Under the new law, social media companies and online platforms must remove such material within 48 hours of notice from the victim. The platforms also have to take steps to delete duplicate content.
Many states have already banned sexually explicit deepfakes and revenge porn, but this will be the first time federal regulators step in to impose restrictions on internet companies.
“This will be the first-ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit, imagery posted without subjects’ consent,” Trump said during a bill signing event Monday at the White House. “We will not tolerate online sexual exploitation.”
First Lady Melania Trump lobbied for the bill, which was sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Cruz said he was inspired to act after hearing that Snapchat refused for nearly a year to remove an AI-generated deepfake of a 14-year-old girl.
Free speech advocates and digital rights groups have raised concerns, saying the law is too broad and could lead to censorship of legitimate images, like legal pornography, as well as government critics.
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, where she covers Tesla and Elon Musk’s broader empire, autonomy, AI, electrification, gig work platforms, Big Tech regulatory scrutiny, and more. She’s one of the co-hosts of the Equity podcast and writes the TechCrunch Daily morning newsletter. Previously, she covered social media for Forbes.com, and her work has appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, i-D (Vice) and more. Rebecca has invested in Ethereum.
