The online safety bill 'Take It Down Act' is too broad and could lead to unintended censorship, according to a report.



This article, originally posted in Japanese on 19:00 Apr 30, 2025, may contains some machine-translated parts.
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The

Take It Down Act, a bill aimed at quickly removing non-consensual sexual images, including deepfakes, passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 409 to 2, and now awaits President Donald Trump's signature. The bill has drawn both supporters who say it will protect children and critics who say it could lead to unjustified censorship.

Take It Down Act heads to Trump's desk | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/657632/take-it-down-act-passes-house-deepfakes

Trump's hasty Take It Down Act has “gaping flaws” that threaten encryption - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/trumps-rush-to-stop-revenge-porn-and-ai-nudes-may-break-encryption/

Take It Down Act nears passage; critics warn Trump could use it against enemies - Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/congress-close-to-passing-deepfake-law-trump-said-he-wants-to-use-it-himself/

The Take It Down Act is a bill that would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), whether real or computer-generated, and would require social media companies to implement systems to remove NCII within 48 hours of becoming aware of its existence.

The bill is expected to help prevent the spread of malicious content such as sexual images of children, revenge porn, and deepfakes.

The bill has received support from parents, youth advocacy groups, and the tech industry. Google's Chief Legal Officer, Kent Walker, praised it as 'a major step toward protecting individuals from non-consensual imagery,' and photo-sharing site Snap also supported it. Internet Works, an organization whose members include mid-sized companies like Discord, Etsy, Reddit, and Roblox, said, 'This bill will give victims the power to remove NCII from the internet, ending the cycle of harm perpetrated by those who publish heinous content.'



The bill has overwhelming support from lawmakers, with a vote of 409 to 2, but has also been criticized for 'leading to unintended censorship.'

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the key point is that 'content must be removed within 48 hours.' This means that smaller platforms with fewer resources will have to act quickly to remove content, which will leave them with no time to verify reports and could result in them removing irrelevant content.

Additionally, the EFF points out that the bill does not exempt end-to-end encrypted services, which is problematic. End-to-end encrypted services prevent service operators from knowing what users are sending, making it impossible for them to remove content, let alone detect NCII in the first place. As an extreme example, the EFF points out, 'Would such services be able to comply with takedown requests? Platforms might respond by abandoning encryption entirely, turning private conversations into monitored spaces, so they can monitor content.'

Experts are divided on whether encryption services might be included in the bill. Adam Billen of AI consulting firm Encode said, 'The bill applies to services that publish content, but our interpretation is that it doesn't apply to encryption services or private messaging.'



There are many opposing opinions, and some media outlets have gone so far as to criticize President Trump's comment, 'I look forward to signing this bill into law. If you don't mind, I will use this bill myself, because no one on the internet is treated worse than me,' which drew laughter from the audience, and point out that 'President Trump will invoke the law simply because he has been treated worse himself.'

One of the two Republican lawmakers who voted against the bill, Rep. Thomas Massie, said, 'I feel this bill is open to abuse and will have unintended consequences.'




postscript:
On May 19, 2025 local time, President Trump signed the 'Take It Down Act.'

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