For Immediate Release
Contact:
Mary Anne Franks, JD, DPhil
President, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
https://cybercivilrights.org/contact-us/
Please also see the CCRI Media Guide
CCRI Welcomes Recent Calls for Federal Legislation against Image-Based Sexual Abuse
March 7, 2025, Coral Gables, FL:
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) welcomes recent calls urging Congress to address the harms of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), including nonconsensually distributed intimate imagery (NDII), sexually explicit digital forgeries, and sextortion. As the leading US-based organization dedicated to combating this abuse, CCRI has been calling on Congress to pass legislation on the issue for over a decade. While various federal criminal bills based on CCRI’s 2013 model statutory language have been proposed almost every year since 2016 (including in the original funding resolution passed by the Senate last December), none have yet been enacted into law. CCRI hopes that recent, high-profile attention to the issue signals a genuine bipartisan commitment to enact clear, effective, and constitutionally sound legislation as soon as possible.
On January 16, 2025, S.146, the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act, or “Take It Down” Act, was reintroduced in the Senate. The bill contains a criminal provision that prohibits the nonconsensual distribution of both authentic intimate images (sometimes referred to as “revenge porn”) and digitally manipulated intimate images (a form of exploitative misinformation often referred to as “deepfakes”). It also contains a provision that requires covered platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate visual depictions within 48 hours. S.146 passed the Senate on February 13 and was sent to the House. On March 3, 2025, the bill was highlighted in a roundtable featuring powerful testimony from survivors as well as remarks by First Lady Melania Trump. On March 4, 2025, President Donald Trump voiced support for the bill during his joint address to Congress.
While supportive of the bill’s criminal provision relating to authentic nonconsensual intimate images, which closely resembles CCRI’s model federal law and state laws that have survived constitutional challenge, CCRI has serious reservations about S. 146’s reporting and removal requirements. Encouraging speedy removal of nonconsensual intimate imagery from platforms is laudable, but the provision as written is unconstitutionally vague, making it difficult for individuals and platforms to understand what conduct is prohibited or required. The provision is also unconstitutionally overbroad, extending well beyond unlawful imagery. Finally, the provision lacks adequate safeguards against abuse, increasing the likelihood of bad faith reports and chilling protected expression. Such flaws would be alarming under any circumstances; in light of the current administration’s explicit commitment to selectively enforcing laws for political purposes, they are fatal. CCRI cannot support legislation that risks endangering the very communities it is dedicated to protecting, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, people of color, and other vulnerable groups.
“Having advocated for a federal law to combat IBSA since 2012, I find it utterly heart-wrenching and extraordinarily difficult to say that this is not the bill to bring across the finish line. However, as an NDII victim whose case never reached a judge because of legal loopholes, I’ve learned one undeniable truth—every word in the law matters.” — Dr. Holly Jacobs, CCRI Founder.
CCRI continues to endorse two other bipartisan bills addressing image-based sexual abuse that have recently been reintroduced in Congress, the Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution (SHIELD) Act, which criminalizes the nonconsensual distribution of authentic intimate images, and the Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act, which criminalizes the nonconsensual distribution of inauthentic intimate images forgeries and creates a civil remedy for victims.
About CCRI: CCRI’s mission is to combat online abuses that threaten civil rights and civil liberties. CCRI is the nation’s leading nonprofit working to protect vulnerable groups from image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). CCRI provides model legislation, policy guidance, legal analysis, and amicus briefs on issues relating to online privacy and free expression and has provided support to over 32,000 victims and survivors of IBSA through the CCRI Image Abuse Helpline. If you or someone you know is a victim of image-based sexual abuse, please visit the CCRI Safety Center, which offers a step-by-step guide on next steps you might take.
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