Deepfake crackdown advances in Senate

House members file the TAKE IT DOWN Act to curb the spread of deepfakes.

A new proposal to crack down on fake, pornographic depictions of people is making its way through Senate committees, with Criminal Justice moving it forward.

The bill (SB 1400), which was introduced by the Commerce & Tourism Committee and is currently fronted by Republican Sen. Alexis Calatayud, would require internet platforms to develop and prominently promote a policy by the end of 2025 for removing deepfake images and videos of this type after someone is victimized in this way.

Calatayud said the bill “addresses the reality that there’s no avenue by which an altered sexual depiction posted on an internet platform can be removed by the individual whose image was used. This unfortunately occurs to Floridians of all ages and is a traumatic experience.”

The bill requires sites to remove such images within 48 hours of being informed, and to make reasonable attempts to remove other copies of said images.

The bill, which envisions the Florida Unfair Trade and Deceptive Practices Act as its enforcement mechanism, expands on legislation championed by former Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book, which imposed criminal and civil penalties by creating law to force sites to take the objectionable image down.

Yet in a recognition that Book’s bill didn’t solve the entire problem, the legislation is called “Brooke’s Law,” named after a Jacksonville teenager who was targeted by a deepfake posted by someone she knew tangentially, and then struggled to get recourse to get the victimizing image removed from the host platform.

Rep. Wyman Duggan’s companion bill (HB 1161) is moving through House committees.