Trump Signs Bill that Criminalizes Deepfake and Revenge Pornography
Earlier this week President Trump signed the “Take It Down Act” into law, which makes it a federal crime for individuals to publish, share, or disseminate non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI generated so-called “deepfake” pornography in which a victim’s likeness or image is altered to realistically depict sexual acts that the victim never performed. These types of fake images often involve celebrities or public figures, but can also be used against ordinary people in attempts to embarrass, harass, or intimidate victims. Under the new law, individuals who upload these images in violation of the law are subject to criminal and civil penalties at the federal level and websites/social media platforms will be required to remove any images within 48 hours of notice from a victim. “The Take It Down Act will protect victims of digital exploitation, hold internet platforms accountable by requiring them to remove such imagery from their platform and provide justice for victims by allowing prosecutors to go after those who publish nonconsensual explicit images online,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a press conference following the signing of the law. The bill received bipartisan support, passing the Senate unanimously and the House in a 409-2 vote. Senator Ted Cruz, who co-sponsored and introduced the bill, said he was inspired by a 14-year-old teen who had an AI-generated deepfake posted on social media and Snapchat refused to remove the image for over a year. The other bill’s sponsor, Senator Amy Klobuchar, praised its passage, saying in a statement., “we must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent, especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse…But now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable.” Although some states already had laws on the books that prohibited this conduct, some felt that this only created a patchwork of laws with varying levels of criminality and difficult enforcement mechanisms to get websites to remove the content, which should be easier with federal authority and oversight.
Illinois Allows Victims to Bring Criminal and Civil Remedies in Cases of Revenge Porn
Illinois residents already had some protections/remedies in place against AI-generated deepfakes since the “Digital Forgeries Act” was passed and went into effect in 2024. That bill altered the text in the Civil Remedies for Nonconsensual Dissemination of Private Sexual Images Act to include “digitally altered sexual images” in the type of actions that allow an individual victim to sue those who engage in so-called “revenge porn.” Under that law, victims can sue their abusers for either the “economic and noneconomic damages proximately caused” by either the threat or actual dissemination of such materials or up to “$10,000 against each defendant found liable” for such a threat or actual dissemination, whichever is greater, as well as recovering any monetary gain by an abuser through their act and potential punitive damages against them too. “Victims of sexually-explicit deepfakes are experiencing real trauma as a result of this abuse – we have a responsibility to put a stop to it,” State Representative Gong-Gershowitz said following House passage of the bill she introduced. Critically, any actions brought under the civil remedies portion of the bill does not affect the rights or remedies available elsewhere, so victims can pursue their civil remedies while also pursuing other avenues available for justice, such as criminal charges through law enforcement. In addition, there are other various other civil remedies that may be available to a victims, such as potential suits for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and various other torts depending on the context of the revenge porn campaign. If you or anyone you know is the victim of revenge porn, online harassment through threats of releasing images, AI-generated deepfakes, or any other form of online harassment or abuse, you should contact an experienced attorney who can fight for you and assist in removing any images/videos from the internet. In addition if you are accused of non-consensual dissemination or posting or private images, you should contact an experienced criminal defense lawyer to protect your freedom.
