A bill targeting "revenge porn" has won support from both parties in the U.S. Senate. Texas Republican Ted Cruz introduced the bill along with Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar.
The "Take it Down Act" would require social media sites to remove pornographic pictures and videos within two days of a victim's request.
"I was shocked to find out social media platforms were not responsible for removing intimate imagery and that I have little to no recourse against these platforms," says Samantha McCoy.
McCoy says she was raped, the other person had recorded video and then sent it to people she knew and posted it on social media.
"My mental health spiraled," she says. "I stopped going to public places because I was inundated with obsessive thoughts that a person who stared at me just a second too long must have seen the rape."
"She's talking about the worst day of her life and then getting revictimized every time someone watches the video of that horrific crime," Cruz says.
The bill would require social media companies to develop a procedure to take down pornographic material when a victim asks. In 2022, Congress passed a bill allowing victims to file civil lawsuits, but Cruz says the process can be time-consuming, expensive and force people to relive trauma.
Brandon Guffey, a state lawmaker in South Carolina, says his son was contacted by someone claiming to be a girl in 2022. Guffey says the two shared pictures, and his son committed suicide less than two hours later when he received messages demanding money and threatening to post the pictures online.
"That is the hurt, that is the shame because there is no out," he says. "The threat of these images going viral, you can't hide that amount of shame."
The bill would also require the removal of pictures and videos created with artificial intelligence. Cruz says 90 law enforcement, human trafficking and exploitation groups are supporting the bill.
"There is not meaningful opposition. There is no one we know of who is actively lobbying against this," he says.
The measure passed the Senate unanimously, and a companion bill has been introduced in the U.S. House. Cruz says he hopes the House passes the bill before the end of the year.
"This will pass eventually, but if it passes a year from now, how many other victims will be victimized? How many girls will be victims? How many parents will lose a child because Congress delayed?" he says. "Let's have the urgency you would have if it was your child who was potentially facing this tomorrow."
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