President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump teamed up on Monday for the signing of the “Take it Down Act” — a bipartisan bill aimed at cracking down on the nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit videos and photos, including deepfakes generated by artificial intelligence.
Melania Trump, in remarks in the Rose Garden, called the bill’s signing a “national victory that will help parents and families protect children from online exploitation.”
“Artificial Intelligence and social media are the digital candy for the next generation: sweet, addictive and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” she said. “But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs, and sadly affect emotions, and even be deadly.”
The first lady thanked her husband “for standing with us on this effort” and said she’s calling on the Federal Trade Commission and the private sector to do their part next on this issue. Her support for the bill is part of her “Be Best” campaign, an initiative launched during President Trump’s first term that is focused on children’s well-being.
“With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deep thanks and other explicit images distributed against their will. This is the wrong and it’s just so horribly wrong, and it’s a very abusive situation … and today we’re making it totally illegal,” President Trump said in his own remarks.
