President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into Law on Monday. The legislation enacts stricter penalties for the distribution of intimate imagery without a person’s consent. This includes “deepfakes” created by artificial intelligence.

David Inserra has written about this law in the past, saying that while good-intentioned, this law will “harm free speech online and threaten smaller companies and encrypted services.”

He provided the following comment in response to the passage:

“The Take It Down Act is a well-intentioned law that seeks to protect Americans from revenge porn. Unfortunately, the notice and takedown regime it establishes will be used to silence legitimate speech and threaten secure encryption. While the act will be used to remove harmful content and punish those that distribute it, companies of all sizes will over-remove speech for fear of government punishment.”

If you would like to speak with Inserra about this, please reach out to mmiller@​cato.​org.