What is the TAKE IT DOWN Act? Melania Trump backs the bill against deepfakes.

The First Lady, Melania Trump, expressed her support for the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bill focusing on deepfakes, during an event on Monday. Deepfakes are AI-generated videos and images that often depict non-consensual explicit imagery using someone's likeness. Last year, for example, explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift appeared on social media, but not only celebrities are at risk; ordinary people, mostly women, can also fall victim to such content, which can severely affect their mental health.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act aims to establish a clearer legal framework regarding this issue. Reports indicate that some states in the U.S. have already begun to regulate deepfakes, although these regulations are inconsistent. Recently, the Senate approved this bill, which would make it a federal crime to intentionally publish or threaten to publish explicit images without the consent of the involved person, including those generated by AI. This bill has bipartisan support from senators, including Ted Cruz and Amy Klobuchar.

Additionally, social media platforms would have a 48-hour deadline to remove such content and prevent the posting of duplicates. The Federal Trade Commission would have the authority to sue platforms that fail to comply with these regulations.

In a discussion at the Capitol, Melania Trump stated, "Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themselves freely, without the threat of exploitation or harm." However, despite the good intentions behind the bill, free speech advocacy organizations have expressed multiple concerns about the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

Groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change, and the Woodhull Freedom Foundation sent a letter to the Senate before the vote expressing their doubts about the legislation. While they acknowledge that the aim is positive, they warn that the current text could lead to the removal of consensual explicit images or journalistic and political speech content. The letter points out that the proposed mechanism could be unconstitutional and would have a censoring effect on users' free speech.

Another concern is that the TAKE IT DOWN Act could incentivize the use of automatic filters, which might incorrectly flag legal content and impact end-to-end encryption, thus hindering platforms' ability to comply with the law. There are fears that if they cannot view potentially infringing messages, platforms may abandon encryption.

These organizations have called for the bill to be amended to address these issues, although the House of Representatives is expected to vote on it shortly.