Ted Cruz and Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar co-sponsored the legislation, and First Lady Melania Trump later supported it. Meta, which owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, supports the legislation.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a tech industry-supported think tank, said in a statement following the bill’s passage last month that it “is an important step forward that will help people pursue justice when they are victims of non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfake images generated using AI. ” “We must provide victims of online abuse with the legal protections they need when intimate images are shared without their consent,
especially now that deepfakes are creating horrifying new opportunities for abuse,” Klobuchar said in a statement.
“These images can ruin lives and reputations, but now that our bipartisan legislation is becoming law, victims will be able to have this material removed from social media platforms, and law enforcement can hold perpetrators accountable,” Klobuchar added. Klobuchar called the law’s passage a “major victory for victims of online abuse” and said it gives people “legal protections and tools for when their intimate images, including deepfakes, are shared without their consent, and enables law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable.”
