The United States Congress has begun discussing the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bill designed to address the growing concern over the proliferation of non-consensual intimate images, known as NCII. This type of content has increased in recent years, especially with the use of technologies that allow for altering or creating images, such as “deepfakes.”
While the intention to protect victims of these privacy invasions is commendable, the approach of the bill has been criticized for its potential to undermine fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and due process. The current draft proposes a system in which websites and other online services must remove reported content within 48 hours and make “reasonable efforts” to locate and remove copies. This requirement, while aiming to assist victims, poses significant risks: the broad terms defined in the law could facilitate abuse by individuals seeking to censor legal speech.
The scope of the project extends beyond simply regulating non-consensual images, encompassing a wide range of intimate content that could include any sexual image. This could lead to the possibility of censoring legally permissible content, such as satire, reporting, or political speech, due to the lack of mechanisms to deter frivolous removal requests.
Furthermore, the 48-hour deadline for removing content could pressure service providers, especially smaller ones, into implementing automatic filters that may mistakenly flag legal content as problematic. This type of censorship could result in a more restrictive online environment than what is observed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which has already been criticized for its abuse in removing legitimate speech.
On the other hand, services that offer strong user privacy protection could also be threatened. While the bill excludes email services, it does not establish clear exceptions for private messaging apps or cloud storage. This could lead some platforms to forgo encryption in order to comply with removal requests, compromising the privacy of conversations.
It is worth noting that there are already multiple laws addressing the issue of non-consensual images. Most states have enacted laws criminalizing the distribution of non-consensual pornography, and there are additional legal grounds that allow victims to file lawsuits. Critics suggest that the proposal of the TAKE IT DOWN Act may not be the right solution, and advocate for improving and enforcing existing protections, rather than proposing a regime that could open the door to misuse and increased online censorship.
via: MiMub in Spanish