TAKE IT DOWN Act#Criticism
{{Short description|Proposed United States legislation}}
{{Infobox U.S. legislation
| shorttitle = Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks
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| colloquialacronym = TAKE IT DOWN
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| introducedin = Senate
| introducedbill = [https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/146/text/ih S. 146]
| introducedby = Ted Cruz (R–TX)
| introduceddate = January 16, 2025
| committees = Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
| passedbody1 = U.S. Senate
| passeddate1 = February 13, 2025
| passedvote1 = by unanimous consent
| passedbody2 = U.S. House of Representatives
| passedas2 =
| passeddate2 = April 28, 2025
| passedvote2 = [https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll104.xml 409-2]
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The Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act, or TAKE IT DOWN Act, is a pending bill in the United States Congress aimed for dealing with non-consensual intimate imagery ("revenge porn") or deepfakes posted to online sites and social media applications, typically made with assistance through artificial intelligence. The bill was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in June 2024, and as of April 2025, has passed both houses on near-unanimous votes.
Background and introduction
Senator Ted Cruz first proposed the Take It Down Act in June 2024 after a 2023 incident where several Aledo, Texas, high school students were subjected to sexual harassment when another student had taken seemingly innocent photos of them, but then posted photo-manipulated pictures of the students on Snapchat using existing software to make them appear nude. While Texas had laws to deal with deepfake videos, there was no regulation to punish the use of manipulated photos, and the parents could not get the local sheriff office to take action. After several months, Cruz contacted Snapchat directly, and the photos were removed within an hour.{{cite news | url = https://www.fox4news.com/news/deep-fakes-texas-artificial-intelligence | title = North Texas mom shares 'deepfake' horror story as lawmakers look to close loophole | first = Alex | last = Boyer | date = June 4, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = KDFW }}{{cite news | url = https://www.fox4news.com/news/sen-ted-cruz-proposes-new-legislation-following-north-texas-girls-deepfake-ai-horror-story | title = Sen. Ted Cruz proposes new legislation following North Texas girl's 'deepfake' AI horror story | first = Lori | last = Brown | date = June 26, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = KDFW }}{{cite web | url = https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/senator-ted-cruz-interview-deepfake-porn-take-it-down-act/287-0fde9ce6-a0f3-493a-9073-405e232da496 | title = Sen. Ted Cruz details his proposed, first-of-its-kind bill to protect victims of deepfake pornography | first = Michael | last = McCardel | date = June 27, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = WFAA }} Cruz said "It should not take a sitting senator getting on the phone to take these down. If [the students] were Taylor Swift, they would be pulled down and should be. But they also should be pulled down for every teenager in Texas. You should have the same right. And that demonstrates that Snapchat knows exactly how to pull it down."
Legislation
As introduced, the bill targeted non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII, also known as "revenge porn"), both real and those created through artificial intelligence or other similar tools. It would criminalize the publication of NCII with up to two years of imprisonment with harsher penalties for images involving minors, require websites and social media services to remove such images at the request from the victim with 48 hours and delete any possible copies of them, while protecting good faith efforts to protect victims of NCII. Enforcement of the bill would be handled by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Cruz, a Republican, worked with Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar to create a bi-partisan bill. It was co-sponsored by eleven other senators from both parties, and had support of several groups including the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, SAG-AFTRA, the National Organization for Women and IBM.{{cite web | url = https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4727380-bipartisan-senators-target-deepfake-revenge-porn-with-new-legislation/ | title = Bipartisan group of senators targets deepfake revenge porn with new legislation | first = Yash | last = Roy | date = June 18, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = The Hill }}
Though the bill was first introduced for passage by unanimous consent in September 2024, its passage was blocked by Cory Booker; a spokesperson for Booker stated that Booker had objected to the bill in its current state and had been seeking to work with Cruz to modify it.{{cite news | url = https://thehill.com/homenews/4900148-cruz-gets-heated-after-booker-blocks-deepfake-revenge-porn-bill/ | title = Cruz gets heated after Booker blocks deepfake revenge porn bill | first = Alexander | last = Bolton | date = September 25, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = The Hill }} During the following two months, Booker worked with Cruz to add amendments to the bill to specify which types of websites were subject to takedown requests and requiring users of these sites to be aware of this regulation once it came into force, and subsequently became a co-sponsor of the bill.{{cite web | url = https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/booker-signs-onto-amended-anti-deepfake-bill-he-previously-blocked/ | title = Booker signs onto amended anti-deepfake bill he previously blocked | first = Joey | last = Fox | date = November 27, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = The New Jersey Globe }} The bill passed the Senate unanimously in December 2024. Cruz urged for the House of Republicans to vote on the bill before the end of the session. The House had incorporated the bill into part of a larger government funding package to avoid a government shutdown, which overall failed due to larger partisan issues; to pass the required extension, several amendments to the budget package, including the TAKE IT DOWN Act, were stripped from the bill.{{cite web | url = https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/18/politics/government-funding-bill-congress-explainer/index.html | title = Here’s what’s in and out of the government funding agreement | first1 = Katie | last1 = Lobosco | first2 = Tami | last2 = Luhby | date = December 21, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = CNN }} The bill did not get reintroduced before the end of the 118th United States Congress term.{{cite web | url = https://www.fox4news.com/news/take-down-act-combatting-deepfake-revenge-porn-passes-u-s-senate | title = Take It Down Act combatting 'deepfakes' revenge porn passes U.S. Senate | first = Steven | last = Dial | date = December 11, 2024 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = KDFW }}
Upon the start of the 119th Congress, Cruz re-introduced the bill, now with 20 co-sponsors, and it passed unanimously in February 2025.{{cite web | url = https://www.kxan.com/news/us-politics/bill-to-protect-victims-of-deepfake-revenge-porn-passes-us-senate/ | title = Bill to protect victims of deepfake ‘revenge’ porn passes US Senate | first = Julianna | last = Ross | date = February 14, 2025 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = KXAN }} In the House, the bill was introduced by Representative María Elvira Salazar and passed the House's Committee on Energy and Commerce in early April 2025.{{cite web | url = https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/congress-close-to-passing-deepfake-law-trump-said-he-wants-to-use-it-himself/ | title = Take It Down Act nears passage; critics warn Trump could use it against enemies | first = Jon | last = Brodkin | date = April 9, 2025 | accessdate = April 25, 2025 | work = Ars Technica }} It passed the full House on a 409-2 vote on April 28, 2025.{{cite web | url = https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-passes-bipartisan-bill-combat-explicit-deepfakes-trump-rcna203316 | title = House passes bipartisan bill to combat explicit deepfakes, sending it to Trump to sign into law | first = Melanie | last = Zanona | date = April 28, 2025 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = NBC News }} President Donald Trump has expressed support for the bill, and was backed by his wife Melania Trump who used her position as First Lady to also build support for the bill.
Criticism
The TAKE IT DOWN Act has drawn concerns from First Amendment-related groups such as the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Authors Guild, Demand Progress Action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Fight for the Future, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and TechFreedom. The groups do not take issue with fighting NCII, but cite concerns with the vagueness of the law's language, in that while the bill is written to target NCII, other legal content is not specifically exempted from the takedown enforcement. This could extend to non-public content stored on servers, such as the content of direct messages, and may require providers to break end-to-end encryption to be able to respond to takedown notices. The notice and takedown system was also said to be subject to potential abuse by bad-faith actors to misrepresent themselves and take down legal content, as had been seen with the enforcement of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The EFF also said that president Donald Trump has supported the bill but also that he would use it to his own ends to remove content critical of himself. This concern was coupled with the firing of the two Democratic commissioners on the FTC by Trump during the first months of his second term; the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, supportive of the intent of the bill, said "Platforms that feel confident that they are unlikely to be targeted by the FTC (for example, platforms that are closely aligned with the current administration) may feel emboldened to simply ignore reports of NCII. Platforms attempting to identify authentic complaints may encounter a sea of false reports that could overwhelm their efforts and jeopardize their ability to operate at all."{{cite web | url = https://www.theverge.com/news/657632/take-it-down-act-passes-house-deepfakes | title = Take It Down Act heads to Trump’s desk | first = Lauren | last = Fiener |date = April 28, 2025 | accessdate = April 28, 2025 | work = The Verge }}