First bill targeting deepfake pornography passed by Congress
Related video: Pasco teacher arrested: is AI-generated child porn illegal?
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bill targeting nonconsensual, sexually exploitative images, passed the House on Monday and now heads to the president's desk.
The bill was sponsored by Florida Rep. Maria Eliva Salazar, a Republican who represents parts of Miami.
If signed by Trump, the TAKE IT DOWN Act will criminalize the publication of nonconsensual explicit images, commonly referred to as 'revenge porn' on social media and other online platforms, including images that are AI-generated.
Deepfake pornography has been a growing issue across the country as generative AI tools have evolved and become more available to the general public.
Up to this point, it has been difficult to prosecute cases of deepfake pornography because there were no laws explicitly criminalizing it.
It was a problem recently faced by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office when it was discovered that a teacher who was charged with possessing child pornography had also used yearbook photos to create AI-generated child pornography with images of his students.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office was unable to charge him for those images because, at the time, it was legal.
A.I. generated child pornography legal under current laws; legislators work to close loophole
This act will ensure that in future cases, perpetrators can be charged for AI-generated content as they would be for authentic content.
The act will also require websites to take down explicit images within 48 hours of a victim requesting their removal and make reasonable efforts to remove copies of the images.
The bill is the first major piece of legislation targeting AI-generated explicit images and was passed by both the House and Senate with bipartisan support.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
10 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk may be the only person in the world who can criticize Donald Trump in public. For now.
If you come at Donald Trump, he's going to respond. Unless, apparently, you're Elon Musk. Trump hasn't said a word about Musk's public complaints about Trump's budget bill. It's hard to imagine Trump staying silent forever. But even this restraint tells you a lot about the Musk/Trump alliance. A pretty fundamental rule of political physics in our age: If you criticize Donald Trump, he roars back. Which makes what's happening now worth noting: Elon Musk is criticizing Donald Trump, and Trump … isn't responding. As you likely know by now, on Monday afternoon, Musk used his X account to complain about the Republican budget bill — the one that's supposed to be Trump's signature legislation, and the one that's literally called the " One Big Beautiful Bill" act because that's the name Trump likes. More specifically: Musk called the bill " a disgusting abomination." "Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it," he added. That story — the richest man in the world, and for at least several months, a key Trump ally, blasting a Trump project in public — dominated Monday's news cycle. Even Fox News had to cover it. And under normal circumstances, Trump would rage back. Not this time, though. Trump has yet to acknowledge Musk's broadside out loud, or on his Truth Social platform. When a Fox News reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt "how mad" Trump would be when he learned about Musk's comments, she had a restrained answer ready: "The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill. It doesn't change the president's opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it." And when I asked the White House press office for comment Wednesday morning, they referred me to Leavitt's previous statement. Obvious conclusion: For now, at least, the Trump team is going out of its way not to stoke a feud with Musk. It seems very unlikely that Trump's silence is going to be permanent: Trump loves holding forth in front of the press, so someone's going to ask him about it at some point. Still, this level of what seems to be restraint is remarkable for a man who doesn't usually restrain himself, and who loathes people who poke at him in public. What's happening? For starters, it's worth noting that Trump has already gone through a version of this. Last week, Musk used much more muted language to criticize the same bill in a CBS interview, and those comments also became a news story. And Trump didn't fire back at Musk then, either — even when asked about it at a press conference. It's also worth noting that even though Musk used scathing language to condemn the bill on Monday, he never once criticized Trump directly. That gives both men rhetorical wiggle room: Musk can argue that his problems with the bill have nothing to do with the man who's promoting it. And Trump can lump in Musk's critique along with everyone else who has problems with the bill, including some Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. But it's also likely that the most likely thing is the most likely thing: That Donald Trump has enormous admiration for Elon Musk, and treats him differently than just about anyone else in the world. And that even though Musk has officially left his role as a part-time White House advisor, Trump still wants him on his side.
Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
India's Vedanta says Trump's tariffs damaging, seeks import curbs
By Neha Arora (Reuters) -Indian metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's doubling of aluminium tariffs to 50% poses a threat to the Indian industry already struggling with surging imports. Trump's latest round of tariffs on aluminium and steel, which took effect on Wednesday, have unsettled the global markets. "The 50% tariff announced by Trump is damaging to the Indian aluminium industry, which is already under pressure from surging imports that threaten to create surplus and risk to domestic market access," a Vedanta spokesperson told Reuters. The miner, which is the country's largest aluminium producer, urged the Indian government to implement tariffs to protect against imports. "..There should be duty guard-rails for the aluminium industry as well which has so far invested more than $20 billion to set up the current domestic primary aluminium capacity," the spokesperson said. India's cumulative aluminum exports fell 19% to 2.24 million metric tons in the fiscal year ended March 2025, according to government data. Separately, the country's federal steel minister said earlier this week that the impact of Trump's steel tariffs would be minor on the local industry, as India, the world's second-largest crude steel producer, does not export to the U.S. in significant quantities. In April, India imposed a 12% temporary tariff on some steel imports, locally known as a safeguard duty, to curb a surge in cheap shipments primarily from China.
The Hill
12 minutes ago
- The Hill
Schumer: Republican bill will raise energy prices 10 percent
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is warning that the House-passed budget reconciliation bill will cause energy prices to increase by 10 percent because it will 'kill' clean energy programs around the country, increasing the nation's reliance on fossil fuels. 'Donald Trump and Republicans seem ready to kill clean energy in its tracks and raise people's energy costs in the process,' Schumer said Wednesday on the Senate floor. He argued that the nation will likely need 'ten times as much energy' as it currently consumers to power 'breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.' 'The Republican plan will increase average national electricity prices by about 10 percent. The Republican plan will increase total household energy costs by $32 billion,' the New York Democrat continued. 'That means American families will pay $32 billion more.' The House bill, which Senate Republicans are now reviewing, would terminate most clean-energy tax breaks after 2025. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that 21 percent of electricity generation in the United States in 2023 came from renewable energy sources. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the GOP bill would reduce energy prices by unleashing domestic oil and gas drilling. 'It will open up leases on America's lands and waters for responsible conventional energy development. It will expand production opportunities for essential energy resources that the Biden administration tried to put on the sidelines,' Thune said. Their claims come as the Congressional Budget Office predicted earlier Wednesday that Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficit over roughly the next decade.
