CNN reports that President Donald Trump will sign the Take It Down Act today. The act is a bipartisan piece of legislation that criminalizes “nonconsensual intimate visual depictions,” including AI fakes. The law was passed by the US House of Representatives on April 20, 2025. This prompted concern from free speech activists who believe that parts of the law can be abused to restrict speech.
Created to combat the spread of sexually exploitative, nonconsensual images online. State laws already address the issue, and certain online platforms have methods to request that a nonconsensual video or image be removed. The new law would establish a federal standard that would make taking down posts mandatory, and direct companies to create a method for requesting videos or images be removed. This system would be overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Take It Down Act’s takedown provision is problematic . The EFF also believes that smaller online platforms are more likely to remove posts if they receive a complaint than to verify whether the post violates the law.
Trump also expressed an interest in taking advantage the new law. Trump said in a joint session with Congress on March 19, 19459022. It’s easy to imagine that the Take It Down Act’s original intentions could be twisted given the lopsided makeup of the FTC, and the Trump administrations loose interpretation of laws.
