Texas Bill to Outlaw Deepfake Revenge Porn

Texas high schooler Elliston Berry made headlines after she was targeted in a deepfake revenge porn incident. In October 2023, a classmate took her Instagram photos and used AI to create fake nudes of the 14-year-old, which were then spread across social media. Berry is not alone—she says nine other students experienced the same violation.

"I immediately felt embarrassed. I didn't want to go to school. I feel like it's a very violating thing, very embarrassing."
- Elliston Berry

Fighting Back

Frustrated by the lack of action from social media platforms like Snapchat, Berry and her mother took their fight to Washington. Within 24 hours of contacting lawmakers, the accounts spreading the images were taken down.

The "Take It Down" Act

To combat the surge in deepfake-fueled revenge porn, Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act or the "Take It Down" Act. The bill aims to protect victims of non-consensual intimate image abuse, making it a crime to publish such imagery, including AI-generated porn. It also requires social media platforms to implement procedures to remove this content within 48 hours when notified by a victim.

What is a Deepfake?

A deepfake is an artificial image or video created using "deep" machine learning. This technology, as explained by the University of Virginia on Information Security, learns and produces output in a similar way to human infants.

"Deep learning is similar to any kind of machine learning, where an algorithm is fed examples and learns to produce output that resembles the examples it learned from. Humans learn the same way; a baby might try eating random objects and it quickly discovers what’s edible and what isn’t."
- University of Virginia on Information Security

Key Points of the "Take It Down" Act:

• Criminalizes the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery, including threats to publish.
• Allows good faith disclosure to authorities or for medical treatment.
• Mandates social media and similar sites to implement procedures for swift removal (within 48 hours) upon victim notification, including efforts to remove copies.