WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has introduced a bill to protect victims of deepfake revenge porn.
The Take It Down Act, which Cruz introduced in a Senate committee earlier this week, would criminalize publishing non-consensual intimate images, including artificial intelligence-generated deepfake pornography, and require social media companies and other sites to remove that kind of content.
According to Cruz and other lawmakers, this is a worsening problem that is increasingly affecting minors. They say up to 95% of all internet deepfake videos depict non-consensual intimate images, with the vast majority targeting women and girls.
Elliston Berry has personal experience with this, after fake images of her were published online when she was 14 years old. She and her mother are now lobbying for change.
"I was terrified. I was shocked, and it was so scary to go to school and just be around people because I always had this fear that these images resurface or there's all these people who have seen these images and I just have no idea," Berry told GMA 3.
The Take It Down Act would make posting non-consensual images of adults punishable by two years in prison. If the photos involve a child, that sentence jumps to three years.
"It also creates a right for the victim to force the social media company to take it down," Sen. Cruz told GMA 3. "Because the social media companies refuse to take them down and they leave these fake images up there, which means the victim ends up being revictimized over and over again."
Cruz said big tech companies are already required to remove copyrighted material, so they should have no trouble following a policy like this.
Learn more about the Take It Down Act.