UltraViolet Action Celebrates the Progress that Take It Down’s Passage Signifies but Expresses Concern About Implementation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
CONTACT: Ricardo Ramírez, rramirez@fwdshift.com
UltraViolet Action Celebrates the Progress that Take It Down’s Passage Signifies but Expresses Concern About Implementation
Washington, D.C. — UltraViolet, a national gender justice and corporate accountability organization, is celebrating the positive aspects of the Take It Down Act, which was enacted into law yesterday. The law makes it illegal to create or distribute nonconsensual intimate images (NCII), which includes nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, a mark of progress for survivors. At the same time, UltraViolet, which has been fighting against AI-based sexual abuse, laments the law’s potentially harmful implementation risks, which could end up hurting survivors more than helping them.
“Take It Down’s success rests entirely on the shoulders of survivors,” said Jenna Sherman, Campaign Director at UltraViolet. “Survivors wrote the bill, championed the bill, and created the conditions for the bill’s passing. For that reason, UltraViolet is first and foremost meeting this moment with gratitude, pride, and celebration.”
The Take It Down Act has a number of benefits:
It sets a precedent for the legal system moving quicker to keep pace with technology, especially when it comes to abuse. “We live in a world in which tech is always five steps ahead of the law,” Sherman said. “This is a challenge in every realm, but especially when it comes to sexual abuse. As we’ve seen, every new technological development has brought with it new forms of abuse. That’s because as tech is progressing, so too is patriarchy and misogyny.
“Now, platforms will be forced to take this issue seriously when, up until now, they have shown complacency at best, and gross negligence at worst. We have been pushing Google, for instance, for nearly two years to protect survivors by de-indexing abusive websites and “declothing” tools, but the company repeatedly made clear that its approach would only change when the laws change. We are disturbed that they didn’t take this issue—largely perpetrated by their website—more seriously before, but are heartened that they will (hopefully) be required to now.”
The law will also likely contribute to an ongoing societal shift in how seriously we view AI-enabled NCII, Sherman said, both in terms of perpetrating abuse and surviving it.
Even as UltraViolet notes the important progress in this law, the organization is simultaneously meeting this moment with concern and caution. The bill’s passing also comes with risks, Sherman said, and those risks outweigh the benefits in the long term.”
“Take It Down could be used as a weapon for the MAGA regime, and any future administrations that abuse powers,” Sherman said. “What’s more, we are concerned about selective interpretation of this law—it’s not lost on us that some of the tech industry’s biggest offenders of platforming and even profiting off non-consensual sexual deepfakes include some of Trump’s current closest allies. In addition, the law’s lack of adequate safeguards against false reporting could expose users to censorship of content that platform CEOs or politicians simply don’t like.”
When signing the bill into law, Trump himself said “I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody.” This statement demonstrates the risk of political leaders using this bill for greater power and control rather than for protecting survivors.
“Relatedly, there are real risks to free speech that come with this law’s enactment. Because this law does not contain adequate safeguards against false reporting, it could be used to censor content that platform CEOs or politicians simply don’t like. It isn’t a stretch, for instance, to imagine any content portraying a female body or sex information getting flagged and taken down. And who are the people putting out sexual content or information about reproductive health? Primarily women, gender-expansive people, and sex workers, who are also most likely to be survivors themselves.
“Fourth, and finally, Trump is signing the first federal legislation targeting NCII into law as a political figure mired in sexual assault scandals. This paradox sends a concerning, ironic message that laws actually don’t matter if you have enough power to evade them.”
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