This week, Congress passed what’s known as the Take It Down Act. This bill would make it illegal to post real and fake sexually explicit imagery online of a person without their consent. The full title of the bill is rather long: The Tool to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks bill.
The bill would require social media and other websites to take down the content within 48 hours of the victim’s request. It aims to reduce the amount of non-consensual intimate imagery, or revenge porn.
With a rise in the capabilities of artificial intelligence there’s been an increase in AI porn. Deepfakes are a phenomenon where AI can take a few images of someone’s face and impose that on a different pornographic video, essentially putting someone’s face on someone else’s body.
Kalālapa Winter, a junior majoring in acting for stage and screen, is glad the bill exists to keep people safe.
“A lot of the revenge porn and deep fakes that exist is so disgusting and inhumane and cruel. And to see yourself in that, or someone you care about in that, it’s just so jarring and terrible,” Winter said.
The Chief Clinical Officer of the collective treatment programs in Newport Beach and a former USC faculty member at the School of Social Work, Kristen Zaleski, said she’s happy this bill has been passed. She said revenge porn can be “a lifelong deal.”
“Unlike face-to-face sexual trauma, where there’s an ending, online sexual trauma there is no ending. It’s there. It’s in perpetuity, and you have no control over it,” Zaleski said.
The potential dangers of AI are endless, because people can make it of anyone, even children. Winter said that one of her friends experienced revenge porn.
“It’s so jarring to see so many people outwardly sexualizing you, and there’s really nothing that could be done about it for so long,” Winter said.
The results of these instances can be quick and damaging, according to Zaleski.
“I’ve had clients who have lost their jobs. A client I talk about in these press interviews is someone who was an elementary school teacher, and her ex-boyfriend did that. He put her image on a pornographic movie and sent it around, tagged her on Facebook, and sent it to her boss at the elementary school...she had to leave her hometown and her life because of this,” Zaleski said.
The bill against revenge porn just passed Congress with bipartisan and nearly unanimous support. It passed unanimously in the Senate with First Lady Melania Trump as a major proponent of the bill. It will now go to President Trump’s desk, and he is expected to sign. Zaleski said she hopes the law will raise awareness on the issue.
“I’m hoping that the press will really help create education for parents and law enforcement personnel to understand the pervasiveness of this problem and have immediate action,” Zaleski said.
Kyra Aligaen, a senior studying occupational therapy, hopes to see this action and believes victims deserve justice.
“People are just so susceptible to what they see online and are easily swayed. If it’s on the internet, they believe that it’s true...so I think it’s a really helpful bill,” Aligaen said.
Many questions remain about how the law will be implemented, but social media companies like Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat have supported the bill. Zaleski is happy that progress is being made and hopes they can take down the content in 48 hours.
“That’s way better than you know, 48 months, right? Which has been some stories. So I’m curious and an optimistic but cautious watcher, as we see this bill get implemented and see how it takes effect,” Zaleski said.
While 48 hours is a start, it’s unfortunately still plenty of time for people to repost and save what should never have existed.