Who could possibly oppose legislation to get tough on AI-generated revenge porn? For one, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of two nays in Monday's House vote on the TAKE IT DOWN Act. For another, a whole bunch of civil liberties advocates, including folks with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and The Future of Free Speech.
That's because no matter how worthy the intentions behind the TAKE IT DOWN Act may be, the way it's written poses major threats to protected expression and online privacy. It could also give politicians another tool with which to pressure technology companies into doing their bidding.
None of the measure's critics are defending "revenge porn," or what the bill calls "nonconsensual intimate visual depictions." Rather, they worry that the measure would be "ripe for abuse, with unintended consequences," as Massie put it.
