Mary Anne Franks, an advocate for cyber civil rights and professor at George Washington Law School, joins Becca Branum from the Center for Democracy and Technology and Adam Conner of the Center for American Progress. They discuss the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a landmark federal law targeting non-consensual intimate imagery and digital forgeries. The conversation delves into its bipartisan support, the balance between protecting victims and free speech, and concerns over potential censorship and enforcement challenges that may arise.
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Core Provisions of TAKE IT DOWN Act
The TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes non-consensual intimate imagery at the federal level, including AI-generated deepfakes.
It requires platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of victim notification, enforced by the FTC.
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Federal Uniformity and Criminalization
The Act creates a uniform federal standard for image-based sexual abuse, improving on patchwork state laws.
Criminal provisions are specific and narrow, representing progress in protecting victims.
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Terminology Matters: 'Digital Forgery'
The bill uses the term "sexually explicit digital forgery" instead of "deepfake" to better describe synthetic intimate imagery.
Terminology affects legal clarity and public understanding of the issue.
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The TAKE IT DOWN Act is the first major U.S. federal law to squarely target non‑consensual intimate imagery (NCII) and to include a component requiring tech companies to act. Long handled via a patchwork of state laws, it criminalizes NCII at the federal level—both authentic images and AI-generated digital forgeries—and requires that platforms remove reported NCII within 48 hours of notification by a victim or victim's representative. TAKE IT DOWN passed with wide bipartisan support—unanimously in the Senate, and 409-2 in the House. Melania Trump championed it, and it is expected that President Trump will sign it. And yet, some of the cyber civil rights organizations that have led the fight to mitigate the harms of NCII over many years have serious reservations about the bill as passed. Why?
Lawfare Contributing Editor Renée DiResta sits down with Mary Anne Franks, President and Legislative & Technology Policy Director at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, and Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at the George Washington Law School; Becca Branum, Deputy Director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology; and Adam Conner, Vice President, Technology Policy at the Center for American Progress to unpack what the bill does, why it suddenly cruised through on a rare bipartisan wave of support, and whether its sweeping takedown mandate will protect victims or chill lawful speech. This is a nuanced discussion; some of the guests support specific aspects of the bill, while disagreeing about the implementation of others. Expect clear explanations, constructive disagreement, and practical takeaways for understanding this important piece of legislation.
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