Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
The U.S. Federal Take It Down Act, designed to combat the “revenge porn” phenomenon, was approved in Congress and signed into law. The law applies to deepfake-created pornographic content, making it the first federal law to explicitly address deepfake risks posed by AI.
Deepfakes are AI-generated images, videos, or voice recordings that can depict people doing acts they never did in reality. Deepfakes have been used extensively in revenge porn, where sexually explicit content featuring a person is published on pornographic websites without their consent.
The Take It Down Act criminalizes the publication of revenge porn and requires social media platforms to establish “notice-and-removal” processes within one year. Previously, victims had few legal avenues to request the removal of such content.
Critics of the Act argue that the “notice-and-removal” process could be misused and potentially serve as a tool to suppress free speech. Additionally, concerns have been raised regarding the FTC, which is tasked with enforcing the Act, and its ability to do so following recent budgetary cuts.
Click here to read the full text of the Take It Down Act.
