Senators unanimously passed the bipartisan Take It Down Act, which would require social media companies to quickly remove sexually explicit deepfakes, block them from posting, and criminalize them. mandated to do so.
For deepfake porn victims like 15-year-old Elliston Berry, this step will be long overdue.
A Texas high school student is working with lawmakers to pass legislation to protect victims like him. She is inspired by her own story last year, when she discovered deepfake nude images of herself circulating on social media in a sinister cyber scheme that changed her life forever.
“A classmate took an innocent photo from my Instagram, put it through editing tools, stripped me of my clothes, and sent it around the school,” she recalled Thursday on “Fox & Friends.” .
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Texas teen Ellison Berry will speak about the Take It Down Act, which would require social media companies to limit deepfake porn on their platforms. (FOX News/Screenshot)
“Many of my friends were also targeted. Many of my classmates could relate to the original situation. And since it happened to so many girls in my grade, you We can make that happen.” [tell] These were fake so we could go to school and hopefully try to do something about it. ”
It took nine months and the help of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to remove the images.
“If you tweeted right now, today, singing the song 'The Lion King,' social media would probably take it down within hours because you can't send copyrighted material,” Cruz said. . fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attends a Senate Judiciary Committee markup on Thursday, May 11, 2023, in Hartville. Mr. Cruz helped Mr. Berry remove graphic deepfakes from the web. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
“So each of these technology companies has a dedicated office to do this. [removing deepfakes]. So what we're doing is saying that if someone is being victimized by a photo or a video or any other false lie aimed at them, they should have the right to take that abuse offline. That's what I'm saying. ”
The bipartisan effort, led by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Cruz, passed the Senate unanimously and now heads to the House.
Cruz is asking the House to act on the bill by the end of this month. Berry hopes lawmakers will pass the bill before Christmas.
”We are asking the House to pass this bill to protect so many people. Future generations are at risk. That's what we're aiming for, and that's what we're pushing for because there are so many people and victims who don't have the ability to go out there and tell their stories. We are calling for this bill to be passed as soon as possible to protect our people,” she said.
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