House passes Melania-backed bill to combat revenge porn, deepfakes

The House on Monday overwhelmingly passed a bill to combat revenge pornography, clearing the legislation endorsed by first lady Melania Trump for her husband’s signature.

The first lady visited Capitol Hill in March to lobby the House to pass the Take It Down Act, which had passed the Senate by unanimous consent in February. 

The legislation would criminalize publication of intimate imagery without consent — more commonly called revenge porn — including AI-generated deepfakes. It would also require social media companies to implement procedures to remove such content within 48 hours of notice from a victim.

The House passed the bill Monday in a bipartisan 409-2 vote, sending it to President Trump for his signature. 

The first lady said she was honored to help guide the legislation through Congress.

“By safeguarding children from hurtful online behavior today, we take a vital step in nurturing our leaders of tomorrow,” Mrs. Trump said.

Mr. Trump highlighted his wife’s advocacy as he asked Congress during his joint address last month to pass the bill. He also gave a shout out to Elliston Berry, the first lady’s guest and a teenage victim of deepfake revenge porn that a classmate produced. 

It was Ms. Berry’s case that inspired Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, to draft the bill. Many other victims have come forward to lobby Congress to pass the legislation. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Democrat, and Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, Florida Republican, and Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania Democrat, were also lead sponsors of the bill.  

“It is outrageously sick to use images — the face, the voice, the likeness — of a young vulnerable female to manipulate them, to extort them and to humiliate them publicly just for fun, just for revenge,” Ms. Salazar said. “And that is why we created this bill, to stop the abuse spreading like wildfire right now on social media.”

Ms. Dean said the bill will hold online platforms accountable if they don’t remove nonconsensual images within 48 hours of victim notification, but urged them to act even sooner to prevent “devastating” consequences. 

Ms. Klobuchar said deepfakes have created “horrifying new opportunities” for online abuse of intimate images shared without consent. 

“These images can ruin lives and reputations, 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,” she said. 

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Florida Republican and chair of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the bill, cited a teacher in his district who used AI to create deepfake explicit content of his students using their yearbook pictures.

“Under current law only the use of the actual photos is illegal. The AI-generated sexually explicit content is not,” he said, noting law enforcement was limited in the charges they could bring against the teacher because of the gap in the law.  

Several other lawmakers spoke about constituents who were victims, including some who were targets of scammers using AI deepfakes to extort money.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan Democrat, said deepfakes have even been used to target some of her House colleagues.