Bill targets AI-generated "deepfake pornography"
Washington — The House passed a bipartisan measure Monday that makes it a national transgression to station existent and fake sexually explicit imagery online of a idiosyncratic without their consent, sending the authorities that was backed by archetypal woman Melania Trump to the president's desk.
The bill, known arsenic the "Take It Down Act," cleared the little enclosure successful a 409-2 vote. The 2 "no" votes came from Republicans. The Senate unanimously passed the measurement successful February.
The authorities requires societal media companies and different websites to region images and videos, including deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence, wrong 48 hours aft a victim's request.
"If you're a unfortunate of revenge porn oregon AI-generated explicit imagery, your beingness changes forever," Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said astatine a March 3 roundtable promoting the bill.
Cruz, who introduced the bill, recalled the acquisition of a teenage victim, Elliston Berry, whose classmate utilized an app to make explicit images of her and past sent them to her classmates. Berry's parent had tried unsuccessfully to get Snapchat to region the images for months earlier she contacted Cruz's bureau for help.
"It should not instrumentality a sitting legislator oregon sitting subordinate of Congress picking up the telephone to get a representation down oregon video down," Cruz said.
The archetypal lady, who seldom appears successful public, attended the March treatment astatine the U.S. Capitol to advocator for the bill's transition successful the House.
"It's heartbreaking to witnesser young teens, particularly girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online contented similar heavy fakes," she said. "This toxic situation tin beryllium severely damaging."
The archetypal woman applauded Congress aft its transition and said the bipartisan ballot made a "powerful connection that we basal agreed successful protecting the dignity, privacy, and information of our children."
"I americium thankful to the Members of Congress — some successful the House and Senate — who voted to support the well-being of our youth," she said successful a statement.
According to the FBI, successful caller years determination person been an alarming fig of cases wherever victims person been extorted that person ended successful suicide. Lawmakers said they anticipation the measure volition prevention lives by providing recourse for victims.
"The ngo of this measure is simple, profound and agelong lasting. It stops cyber abuse. It prevents the bullying of 1 kid against another, and adjacent much importantly, it prevents termination calved retired of shame," Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, who cosponsored the authorities successful the House, said Monday during level debate.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, arsenic good arsenic TikTok and Snapchat person each said they enactment the legislation.
Digital rights groups, however, person warned that the authorities arsenic written could pb to the suppression of lawful speech, including morganatic pornography, and does not incorporate protections against bad-faith takedown requests.
Caitlin Yilek is simply a authorities newsman astatine CBSNews.com, based successful Washington, D.C. She antecedently worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a subordinate of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.