TAKE IT DOWN Act

Mr. Speaker, every generation of Congress faces moments that test our commitment to justice, and today is one of those moments.

I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on S. 146, the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The Senate has already done its job. They passed this legislation unanimously. Now, it is our turn in the House of Representatives. This is our moment to stand up to protect our children and make this the law of the land.

The name of the legislation is the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The mission of this bill is simple, profound, and long lasting. It stops cyber abuse. It prevents the bullying of one child against another and, even more importantly, prevents suicide born out of shame.

It is outrageously sick to use images--the face, the voice, the likeness--of a young vulnerable female to manipulate them, to extort them, and to humiliate them publicly just for fun, just for revenge. That is why we created this bill, to stop the abuse spreading like wildfire right now on social media.

It is widely known that 99 percent of the time, the victims, most of them girls, don't even know their faces, their bodies, their intimate parts are being circulated around the internet in fake, compromising pornographic images. Unfortunately, in life, perception is reality. Even though the images are fake, the consequences are very, very real.

Even though, as I said, the images do not belong to them, those girls are paying for them dearly with shame, humiliation, and the unbearable suffering when you are 14, 15 years old. Up until now, there was no recourse. Just imagine waking up one morning to find yourself trapped in a nightmare that you never created. This is exactly what is happening to our children, and this is why we must act.

Mr. Speaker, the bill called the TAKE IT DOWN Act finally sends a very loud and clear message to Big Tech. If you, Big Tech, do not remove these fake images within 48 hours, you are as guilty and as responsible as the predators who created them.

I am talking to Snapchat, to Instagram, and to TikTok. All of them will have to comply within 48 hours when a victim calls and demands and tells you that you have to remove those images. There are no more excuses. You, Big Tech, have to take it down.

Let's talk to the bullies, to the predators, to the perverts who are hiding behind a computer, the ones who created this fake material. If you dare to do this again to another innocent child, most of them girls, you are going to prison. You will be in jail for a long time. Don't do it, and don't dare to do it anymore. Prison is a great place where you can sit and ponder what you have done to another human being.

Today, we take away the power from the aggressors and the accomplices, and we give it back to the victims and their families. Up until now, the parents of the victims found that the schools couldn't do anything. The police couldn't do anything. Big Tech would not even pay attention to them but no more. Now they can because we are passing this law.

What a great honor it is for me to be part of this initiative, one that the First Lady has personally championed. The President of the United States endorsed this legislation during the recent state of the Union that he conducted in front of Congress. The President explained this as a vital step to defend our sons and daughters against online predators.

My fellow colleagues, this is not about politics. This is about basic human dignity. This is about protecting children who are the most vulnerable among us. As I just mentioned, the Commander in Chief called on us to act on this law in this very Chamber a few weeks ago.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the House of Representatives to vote ``yes'' on the TAKE IT DOWN Act. Let's make history today. Let's protect our children. Let's just take it down.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 146) to require covered platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate visual depictions, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in strong support of S. 146, the TAKE IT DOWN Act by Senator Ted Cruz. The bill addresses a serious gap in our current law, a loophole that came to light in my own district.

I had a meeting on this particular issue with the sheriff in Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff Nocco, and then I also talked to Senator Cruz about one of his constituents. This is how we get things done. The best ideas come from the people, and this is very necessary.

A teacher in my district used AI to create explicit content of his students incorporating real images of his students taken from a yearbook. Under current law, only the use of the actual photos is illegal, the AI-generated, sexually explicit content is not.

Because of this gap, law enforcement was unable to fully charge this particular individual, this sick individual, in my opinion, for the scope of the images in his possession. Had this bill been in effect, his actions would have been criminalized in full.

As technology evolves, so must our laws. We need to keep pace, there is no question. We must. We must continue working hand in hand with our law enforcement partners to stay ahead of these emerging threats and safeguard our most vulnerable.

I urge my colleagues to join me in voting in favor of S. 146. The House sponsor is the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Salazar). She is a great friend of mine. Let's get this done. We need to be protecting our children.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Salazar), the House sponsor of this particular bill, who is my good friend and a very effective Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie), the great chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and a good friend of mine who is doing an outstanding job, in my opinion.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the President of the United States for shedding light on this particular bill at the state of the Union. I thank our great First Lady as well for her support on this particular bill.

I thank Representatives Dean and Dingell, and, of course, Representative Salazar who was also the main sponsor of the bill in the House. I thank Senator Cruz who worked so very hard to get this done.

This is a bipartisan accomplishment, and we will protect our kids if we pass this particular bill. It will go to the President once we pass this bill. Let's get it done. Let's pass it unanimously.

Mr. Speaker, again, I encourage a ``yes'' vote on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Bilirakis and Ranking Member Pallone for bringing this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the TAKE IT DOWN Act. Senate bill 146 was my bill, and it is still my bill. I thank Congresswoman Salazar for her leadership on this. I thank Congresswoman Dingell for her longtime leadership on this and for leading this effort with me on the House side. I thank Senators Cruz and Klobuchar for their strong leadership on this.

As we speak, the internet is awash with real and fake nonconsensual intimate imagery. Mr. Speaker, the consequences, as you just heard, are devastating for every victim, their family, and their community. It happens to men and boys, to women and girls. Most often, it happens to women and girls.

As AI becomes more prevalent in our everyday lives, Congress must meet this moment. We must empower and protect victims from bad actors who share their intimate images, real or fake, without consent and from the most harmful developments of AI.

During the 2023-2024 school year, 15 percent of high school students reported hearing about deepfakes of nonconsensual intimate images that depicted kids at their schools. It happened to one of my hometown constituents, a 20-year-old, bright college student named Jack Sullivan. He was sextorted by two men claiming to be a woman on Instagram. They threatened Jack. They told him they would post intimate images of him unless he paid huge sums of money. He paid and he paid. When he could no longer pay their demands, Jack took his own life. We must do better for Jack and every other victim of these crimes.

As a former educator, and a mother, and as a grandmother, this sickens me. As an elected official, I am moved to protect our children. Congress must create guardrails to protect Americans' privacy and dignity at a time when online exploitation is easier than ever.

That is what our bill does. The TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes the publication of real or fake AI-generated intimate images. It requires websites to react, to respond, and to remove these horrifying images and videos within 48 hours of a victim's report. I suggest they act even faster. Finally, we will hold online platforms and social media companies accountable. This cannot wait.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have bipartisan support for this bill. I thank Representative Salazar and Senators Cruz and Klobuchar. I thank the First Lady and the President for their leadership on this. I implore all of my colleagues to join us in supporting this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Guthrie. I thank Ranking Member, Frank Pallone, who often puts up with my intensity on this subject. I also thank Chairman Bilirakis and my co-leads, Representatives Salazar, Dean, and Pfluger, as well as Senator Cruz and Senator Klobuchar, my compatriot many days, who works to prioritize violence against women.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a strong and unwavering advocate for women, children, and survivors of abuse and in support of a bill that I helped lead, S. 146, the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

The rise of deepfake pornography and nonconsensual intimate images is a growing crisis that demands urgent action now. We need to work together to protect women and children from these evolving threats. New generative artificial intelligence tools are being weaponized to humiliate, silence, and terrorize women and children.

We have seen it used against children as young as middle school as a tool to create revenge porn. We have seen it used against women in public life, on both sides of the aisle, including our own colleagues.

None of my colleagues think this is acceptable, and it is a crisis that demands immediate action. We have a responsibility to act now and not tomorrow, not next year, not after more damage is done. The TAKE IT DOWN Act gives victims a clear, fast pathway to have these images removed from online platforms, hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure that tech companies do their part. They have responsibility.

This is just one piece of a broader fight. It is one I have been in for years, and I will not stop fighting. We will end violence against women, address coercive control, and stop the misuse of technology to harm survivors.

Let me be clear. This bill should already be law. It passed the Senate unanimously. It was included in Congress' year-end package last year until it was stripped out at the end. I won't get political on that because I want everybody to vote on it right now. It should never have happened.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the TAKE IT DOWN Act. Let's get this across the finish line and deliver for the women and children who are counting on us.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise to speak in support of S. 146, the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The legislation addresses the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images online, one of the most significant harms proliferating on the internet in recent years.

Advances in generative artificial intelligence and other photo manipulation software have enabled the creation of digital forgeries that place victims in sexually explicit situations that never actually occurred but can still cause massive reputational and financial damage to those who were targeted.

Some of the platforms hosting actual and computer-generated nonconsensual intimate images have promised to address such abuses online and protect their users but, nevertheless, victims report great difficulty in getting such images removed from the internet. They tell us they feel powerless as it spreads or even resurfaces years later.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act will require social media and other online public platforms to provide a mechanism for people to notify the platform of nonconsensual intimate images in which they are depicted. It also requires the platforms to take reasonable steps to remove the images from their platforms within 48 hours.

I thank Representatives Dean and Dingell for their leadership on this issue, and I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation. I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Dean).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell), a member of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I urge unanimous support for this legislation. Once again, this is another very important bill as part of this consumer protection agenda today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.