Melania Trump will host a roundtable in a bid to tackle revenge porn and deepfakes as her first act after becoming first lady once again.
The Take It Down Act intends to crack down on the sharing of non-consensual sexual images and videos.
It comes after a 2023 study found that there had been a 550 per cent rise in manipulated content since 2019, much of it fuelled by AI.
The bill would “criminalise the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery” including material generated by AI.
Melania Trump will host a roundtable in a bid to tackle revenge porn and deepfakes as her first act after becoming first lady once again
Reuters
On Monday afternoon, Trump said: “In an era where digital interactions are eternal, it is imperative we safeguard children from mean spirited and hurtful online behaviour.”
She said that the “threat of privacy breaches is alarmingly high” for children.
The First Lady highlighted the case of Elliston Berry, a 15-year-old victim of AI-generated deepfake porn, which was created “solely to humiliate her”.
According to Texas Republican Ted Cruz, who introduced the Take It Down Act, Elliston was 14-years-old when a classmate took a photo from her Instagram to make AI-generated porn.
The videos were still online nine months later and were not removed until Cruz called the Head of Instagram to get the content deleted.
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Speaking on Monday, Berry spoke about how her “innocence was stripped away” as she was “violated all over social media”.
Deepfake porn utilises AI to produce unlawful videos, through non-consensually superimposing a person’s face onto pornographic content.
There is no national legislation criminalising deepfake porn, but revenge porn - the leaking of sexual content without consent - is illegal in 49 states.
Although Berry's family reached out to social media companies for assistance, Trump said: “Their efforts fell upon deaf ears.
“Ultimately the fake images circulated worldwide.
“It’s heartbreaking to witness young teens, especially girls, grappling with overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content like deepfakes.
The Take It Down Act intends to crack down on the sharing of non-consensual sexual images and videos
Reuters
“This toxic environment can be severely damaging.”
The Take It Down Act, which would require social media companies to introduce procedures which remove flagged content, has faced opposition from digital privacy campaign group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
According to the foundation, the bill “threatens free expression” and fails to address the problem it claims to solve.
The bill was partly a response to last year’s controversy surrounding deepfake videos of Taylor Swift, which were shared tens of millions of times on X.
It has passed the Senate and may also clear the House with the support of the First Lady.
Trump has also recently launched her “Be Best” campaign to combat online bullying, but critics have vocalised that her husband President Donald Trump, uses social media for just that purpose.
