Trump signs Take It Down Act, criminalizing deepfake and revenge porn

The "Take It Down Act," which passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress, makes it a crime to share intimate images without consent, while also requiring the removal of such images from online platforms.

“Amid the rise of AI-generated images, countless women have been subjected to harassment through deepfakes and other explicit images shared against their will,” President Trump stated during a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

“Today, we are making it completely illegal,” the president added. “Anyone who intentionally distributes explicit images without consent could face up to three years in prison.”

First Lady Melania Trump expressed her support for the bill in early March and made a rare public appearance at the signing ceremony.

Since her husband’s inauguration on January 20, the First Lady has kept a low profile at the White House, spending limited time in Washington.

During her remarks at the ceremony, she called the bill a “national victory that will help parents and families protect children from online exploitation.”

“This legislation represents a significant step forward in our efforts to ensure that all Americans, particularly young people, are better protected from having their image or identity misused,” she said.

Deepfakes, which often use artificial intelligence and other tools to create realistic fake videos, can be used to make falsified pornographic images of real women and spread them online without their consent.

While some states, like California and Florida, already have laws criminalizing the distribution of sexually explicit deepfakes, critics of the "Take It Down Act" have raised concerns that it could give authorities more power to enforce censorship.