Washington (AFP) – The US House of Representatives voted almost unanimously Monday to make it a federal crime to post “revenge porn” — whether it is real or AI-generated — sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk for approval. The Take it Down Act passed in a 409-2 vote, and would criminalize the non-consensual publication of intimate images, while also mandating their removal from online platforms, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said.
In March, the president vowed to sign the bill into law during a joint session of Congress. “I look forward to signing that bill into law. Thank you,” Trump said. “And I’m going to use that bill for myself too if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online, nobody.”
House approval of the bill follows its unanimous passage in the Senate in February, an advancement that Johnson called “a critical step in fighting” the growing online problem. Deepfakes often rely on artificial intelligence and other tools to create realistic-looking fake videos. They can be used to create falsified pornographic images of real women, which are then published without their consent and proliferate.
First Lady Melania Trump endorsed the bill in early March and said in a statement Monday that the bipartisan passage “is a powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of our children.”
Some US states, including California and Florida, have already passed laws criminalizing the publication of sexually explicit deepfakes. Critics voiced concern that the Congress bill grants authorities increased censorship power.
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation, a nonprofit focused on free expression, posted a statement Monday saying the new legislation gave “the powerful a dangerous new route to manipulate platforms into removing lawful speech that they simply don’t like.” “President Trump himself has said that he would use the law to censor his critics,” they added.
© 2024 AFP
