The legislation would require tech companies to remove the images within 48 hours of a request from a victim.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks about a bill to help protect victims of deepfakes and revenge porn, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. The bill, unveiled last week, would make it a federal crime to publish or threaten to publish nonconsensual intimate images, whether authentic or created artificially with AI or other computer tools. Thewould also require websites to remove the content within 48 hours of receiving a request from a victim.
Advocates said the mandatory removal of content is a unique and essential aspect of this bill, because they fear tech companies won’t do it on their own. They cited examples of people making hundreds of requests and pointed to Berry’s photos being removed by Snapchat after Cruz’s office reached out to the company.Snapchat did not have a comment on Berry’s case but pointed to policies prohibiting sexual exploitation and deepfakes on its platform.
“It’s imperative that tech plays a role here, and if they won’t do it voluntarily, they should be required to do so,” said Stefan Turkheimer, vice president of public policy for the nonprofit Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. “This is a problem that is not just facilitated by them, but created by them and the proliferation of these images is not possible without them.