New revenge porn law signed by Trump is being praised as it's expected to have major impact
Donald Trump has announced that the Take it Down act was being signed into law to allow victims of deepfake porn to take legal action.
With the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence, image generators creeps all over the world have used it to create explicit images of real people and celebrities.
One notable example from last year was fake sexualised images of Taylor Swift making the rounds online, which led to several of her fans calling for something to be done about it.
Some have then taken these AI images and shared them on social media and porn websites, causing distress for any real people represented in them.
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Now, President Donald Trump has signed in a new act that will offer those affected the ability to take matters into their own hands.
What is the Take It Down Act?
The Take it Down Act has been introduced to directly combat this growing trend.
Congress’ explanation of the bill reads: “This bill generally prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of individuals, both authentic and computer-generated, and requires certain online platforms to promptly remove such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence."
How does it work?
While much of the focus has been on AI image generation, the law applies at a federal level to real images or videos where the individual has not given their consent for it to be uploaded, often referred to as 'revenge porn'.
Under this new law, those who make or distribute such content are 'subject to mandatory restitution and criminal penalties, including prison, a fine, or both'.
“Threats to publish intimate visual depictions of a subject are similarly prohibited under the bill and subject to criminal penalties.” the bill continues.
The law will also mean that social media platforms will have to ‘remove such content within 48 hours of notice from victims’ or face the consequences.
Websites will also have approximately a year to implement and establish a process by which users can report the non-consensual content.
What Trump has said?
Speaking outside at the White House, Trump said: “Today it is my honor to officially sign the Take it Down act into law, it is a big thing, it is very important, it is horrible what takes place.
“This will be the first ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imagery posted without subjects consent, take horrible pictures and I guess sometimes even make up the pictures then they post it without consent.
“This includes for forgeries generated by artificial intelligence, known as deep fakes, we have all heard of them.”
Trump continued to explain the importance of this bill and how it will help protect women, adding: “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, so horribly wrong and it is a very abusive situation, in some cases people have never seen [such things] before and today we are making it totally illegal.”
What have people said about the bill?
The Take it Down bill passed almost unanimously in the US House of Representatives and the Senate.
First Lady Melania Trump, who'd previously urged Congress to pass the bill back in March, said that the new law was a 'national victory that will help parents and families protect children from online exploitation' (via the BBC).
Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz described it as a ' historic win for victims of revenge porn and deepfake image abuse', and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) said this 'groundbreaking' law 'closes a dangerous gap by targeting the distribution of both real and digitally altered exploitative content involving children'.
On social media, people were also quick to praise it, with one user commenting: “Aye this is actually a good thing. First good thing he’s done all year.”
Another said that it was 'something good out of this administration', while a third said: "He’s completely right to do this. A positive move."
Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, Artificial Intelligence
Gerrard Kaonga