Photo credit: www.theverge.com
Take It Down Act Moves to President’s Desk Amid Controversy
The Take It Down Act is set to be signed by President Donald Trump after receiving overwhelming support in the House, with a vote of 409-2. This legislation mandates that social media companies remove content identified as nonconsensual (including AI-generated) sexual images. Trump has expressed his intention to sign the bill into law.
This bill marks a significant achievement in the realm of online safety legislation, emerging during a time of heightened concerns regarding deepfake technology, child protection, and various related issues. However, detractors of the measure worry it could be manipulated against political opponents and content deemed unfavorable by the administration. Specifically, the bill criminalizes the distribution of nonconsensual intimate images (NCII), regardless of whether they are real or digitally created, and requires social media platforms to establish a process to remove flagged content within 48 hours.
In a recent congressional address, Trump joked about utilizing the bill for his own advantage, noting, “I’m going to use that bill for myself too, if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online, nobody.”
The rise of AI tools that enable the creation of lifelike images has intensified existing worries about the dissemination of harmful content, particularly in educational environments where such material could foster bullying and abuse. Critics argue that while it is essential to address these concerns, the methods proposed by the Take It Down Act may be prone to misuse.
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), an organization aimed at eradicating image-based sexual abuse, has expressed reservations about the Act’s passage. They welcome the federal criminalization of NDII but lament the inclusion of a takedown provision they believe is vulnerable to exploitation, potentially harming the very victims it seeks to protect. The CCRI worries that the bill, which empowers the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) — an agency that has seen significant changes in leadership — could lead to selective enforcement, benefiting “unscrupulous platforms.”
They cautioned that platforms aligned with the current administration might choose to ignore legitimate reports of NDII due to a perceived low risk of being targeted by the FTC. Additionally, platforms striving to sift through authentic complaints could find themselves inundated with false reports, complicating their operational capacity.
“Platforms may respond by abandoning encryption entirely,” they noted, highlighting a significant risk to user privacy.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has also raised concerns regarding the bill’s implications for smaller platforms. They argue that the rapid response time required for content removal could lead these platforms to resort to inadequate filtering methods, thus failing to verify the validity of reports. The bill’s stipulations apply even to end-to-end encrypted services, such as private messaging apps and cloud storage, which cannot effectively monitor user communications. The EFF questions, “How could such services comply with the takedown requests mandated in this bill?” They warn that to facilitate compliance, platforms might choose to eliminate encryption, inadvertently transforming private conversations into surveilled environments.
Despite these concerns, the Take It Down Act has attracted broad support. First Lady Melania Trump has emerged as a strong advocate for the bill, alongside various parent and youth organizations, as well as figures within the tech industry. Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, described the passage as “a big step toward protecting individuals from nonconsensual explicit imagery,” while Snap also endorsed the House vote.
Internet Works, which represents medium-sized tech companies like Discord, Etsy, and Reddit, commended the legislative decision, stating it would empower victims to remove NCII from the internet and help end the cycle of victimization. Conversely, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of the two dissenting votes, expressed concerns via social media, labeling the bill a “slippery slope” that could result in unintended consequences.
Source
www.theverge.com