Virginia criminalized revenge porn way back in 2014, but it’s still not a crime at the federal level to post revenge porn images and videos, and AI-produced revenge porn deepfakes.
There’s a bill in the current Congress, styled the TAKE IT DOWN Act – the acronym spells out Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks – to address the federal loophole.
The bipartisan, bicameral legislation would require social media and similar websites to have in place procedures to remove revenge porn content within 48 hours of receiving notification from a victim.
“As artificial intelligence continues to be developed and become more common in daily life, we are seeing a disturbing rise in the use of these technologies to create exploitative, non-consensual images and videos,” said Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who is a cosponsor of the TAKE IT DOWN Act in the current Congress.
“Congress must criminalize revenge pornography — and any effort to do so must also include mechanisms to remove deepfake pornography from the web and provide victims with sufficient legal recourse,” said Spanberger, who is running for the Democratic Party nomination for governor in Virginia in the 2025 cycle.
“I’m backing this bipartisan, bicameral legislation because I believe that Congress must follow Virginia’s lead to protect women, children, and all Americans from becoming victims and prosecute those who commit what should be considered a federal crime,” Spanberger said.
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Chris Graham
