May 19 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Monday signed legislation making it illegal to publish sexually explicit images and videos without consent, or to make authentic or computer-generated deepfakes, including revenge porn threats.
On hand to sign the "Take it Down Act" in the Rose Garden of White House was first lady Melania Trump, who was instrumental in getting the measure through Congress.
Also attending the signing were two teens who were harassed, Elliston Berry of northern Texas and Francesca Mani of New Jersey. Berry was Melania Trump's guest during her husband's address to Congress in March when he spoke about the bill.
"This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused through nonconsensual, intimate imagery," the first lady said at the ceremony. "Artificial Intelligence and social media are the digital candy for the next generation -- sweet, addictive and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children. But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs and sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly."
In her push to get the bill approved, Melania Trump met members of the House and the Senate, survivors and their families, and advocates.
Trump said at the signing ceremony: "With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deep fakes and other explicit images distributed against their will. This is ... wrong, and it's just so horribly wrong. It's a very abusive situation, like, in some cases, people have never seen before. And today we're making it totally illegal."
Singer Taylor Swift became a deepfake victim on Jan. 24, 2024, when users created sexually explicit images depicting her at a football game. X temporarily paused searches of her name. On Sept. 11, 2024, when she endorsed Kamala Harris for president, she posted on Instagram: "I was made aware that AI of 'me' falsely endorsing Donald Trump's presidential run was posted to his site."
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February found a deepfake of herself performing a sex act.
"There's a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone could think are real," Ocasio-Cortez told Rolling Stone. "As a survivor of physical sexual assault, it adds a level of dysregulation. It resurfaces trauma, while I'm ... in the middle of a ... meeting."
The "Take it Down Act" will require violators to make restitution and face criminal penalties, including prison time.
Also, people can be prosecuted for making threats to publish material, known as revenge porn.
Websites would be required to remove these kinds of images and videos after receiving a request from a victim within 48 hours. The Federal Trade Commission will enforce the rules.
Trump has signed five previous bills, all within his first 100 days in office. This is fewer than any other president since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s, according to NBC research.
The new legislation was approved by the House 409-2 last month. And it passed the Senate unanimously in February.
In early March, Trump said jokingly: "I'm going to use that bill for myself because nobody gets treated worse than I do online."
During an event on March 3, Melania Trump said: "It's heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content like deepfakes.
"This toxic environment can be severely damaging. We must prioritize their well-being by equipping them with support and tools necessary to navigate this hostile digital landscape. Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themselves free without the looming threat of exploitation or harm."
The nonprofit 19th, an independent newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy, explains how to request takedowns of the images.
Many states have laws explicitly banning sexual deepfakes, but they vary classification of crime and penalties.
"This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit, imaginary, posted without the subject's consent, take horrible pictures, and I guess sometimes even make up the pictures that they post without consent or anything else," Trump said at the signing ceremony.
Few federal laws detail with harm from AI.
"AI is new to a lot of us and so I think we're still figuring out what is helpful to society, what is harmful to society, but (non-consensual) intimate deepfakes are such a clear harm with no benefit," Ilana Beller, organizing manager at progressive advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a CNN report.
Some big tech platforms, including Google, Meta and Snapchat, allow users to request the removal of explicit images. Non-profit organizations StopNCII.org and Take It Down assist in the removal of such images across multiple platforms at once, although not all sites cooperate.
Apple and Google remove AI services that convert clothed images into manipulated nude ones from their app stores and search results.
Some so-called bad actors seek out platforms that don't act to remove the images and videos.
"This legislation finally compels social media bros to do their jobs and protect women from highly intimate and invasive breaches of their rights," Imran Ahmed, CEO of the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in a statement to CNN. "While no legislation is a silver bullet, the status quo-where young women face horrific harms online -- is unacceptable."
Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, was a sponsor of the bill. One of his teenage constituents was victimized by nonconsensual deepfakes.
Free speech advocates and digital rights groups oppose the legislation, saying it is too broad and could lead to the censorship of legitimate images including legal pornography and LGBTQ content.
"While the bill is meant to address a serious problem, good intentions alone are not enough to make good policy," the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, said. "Lawmakers should be strengthening and enforcing existing legal protections for victims, rather than inventing new takedown regimes that are ripe for abuse."
