Cruz introduces bipartisan bill making publication of deepfake, revenge pornography federal crimes

Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced the a bipartisan bill to criminalize the publication of revenge pornography, including deepfake pornography, a federal crime.

According to Cruz's office, the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks or TAKE IT DOWN Act, would "require social media sites to take down such explicit imagery and make publishing it a federal crime."

The bill would "criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including AI-generated NCII (or “deepfake pornography”), and require social media and similar websites to have in place procedures to remove such content upon notification from a victim," according to a news release from the Senate Commerce Committee.

Cruz said that in recent years, there has been a "stunning increase in exploitative sexual material online, largely due to bad actors taking advantage of newer technologies like generative artificial intelligence."

"Many women and girls are forever harmed by these crimes, having to live with being victimized again and again," Cruz said in a statement. "While some states provide legal remedies for victims of non-consensual intimate imagery, states would be further supported by a uniform federal statute that aids in removing and prosecuting the publication of non-consensual intimate images nationwide."