President Donald Trump’s signage of the Take It Down Act marked historic, bipartisan progress to empower victims of sexual abuse and protect children from online exploitation. The Act criminalized the exploitation of “deepfakes” and other non-consensual sexual images and requires social media websites to remove these images within 48 hours of notification. The bill passed the House of Representatives with 409-2 support and moved through the Senate by Unanimous Consent; it then hit the President’s desk yesterday where he signed the bill into law.
The Act is part of First Lady Melania Trump’s BE BEST initiative which promotes child welfare through three main focuses: well-being, online safety, and opioid abuse. Mrs. Trump joined Congressional leaders in a roundtable earlier this year to discuss Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse (NCII) and its abhorrent toll on America’s communities.
NCII abuse includes the publishing or threats to publish pornographic deepfakes and hidden video/photo captures in order to manipulate, punish, or extort a victim. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) paired with the abundant access to public images on social media allows predators to create sexually explicit blackmail without ever even leaving their home. As Concerned Women for America (CWA) has previously covered, the use of AI deepfake videos for deceptive purposes has doubled from 50,000 videos to 100,000 since 2020.
The Take It Down Act explicitly prohibits online distribution of both authentic and computer generated NCII by subjecting violators to criminal penalties.
Additionally, all intimate photos of children are considered non-consensual. Therefore, publication of any intimate images of minors, whether to harass the minor or gratify sexual desires of another, are outlawed.
As previously stated, the bill requires that online platforms (such as social media websites) remove these non-consensual, explicit images within 48 hours of receiving notice about them.
President Trump invited several victims of NCII attacks to the White House for the celebratory signing of the Take It Down Act. One guest in particular, Elliston Berry, has championed the bill’s passage through Congress and joined President Trump’s first joint address as the First Lady’s guest of honor.
Elliston Berry and her family launched their advocacy after a classmate used social media to create fake explicit photos of her when she was 14. Though she and her mother spent months alerting the publication site, they received no response.
The First Lady recognized “Elliston Berry stood boldly for change—despite the risks posed to her and her family by speaking out and making her voice heard. Elliston, your voice—and the voices of so many like you—made this bill a national priority.”
CWA echoes the First Lady’s gratitude. As artificial intelligence develops and internet/social media become breeding grounds for sexual exploitation, it is imperative we find solutions that empower victims, ensure pathways to justice, and most importantly, keep children’s innocence and safety a national priority. We are grateful for the bipartisan support that made the Take It Down Act possible, and we will continue working with elected leaders to promote increasingly robust protections that combat sexual exploitation.
We pray the innocence of our children remains a uniting force for our country and its leaders.