Senator Ted Cruz's Mission to Protect Victims of Deepfake Abuse and 2025 Voice of the Year Award Recipient | Ep 316

Senator Ted Cruz's Mission to Protect Victims of Deepfake Abuse and 2025 Voice of the Year Award Recipient | Ep 316

Digital exploitation has reached unprecedented levels with the rise of AI technology, leaving countless victims feeling powerless against non-consensual intimate images. Senator Ted Cruz sits down with Justin Alan Hayes to share the remarkable journey behind the Take it Down Act, now federal law, that's changing lives across America.

At the heart of this legislation is the story of Elliston Berry, a 15-year-old Texas high school freshman who discovered AI-generated deepfake nude images of herself circulating throughout her school. The devastating revelation came with another blow—there was no legal recourse because these artificially generated images fell outside existing child pornography laws. "It is hard to be a teenager. It's really hard to be a teenage girl right now," Cruz reflects, speaking as a father of two teenage daughters. "But if you can imagine all of your friends in ninth grade believing they're looking at naked pictures of you..."

This legislative gap prompted Cruz to create the Take it Down Act, which criminalizes sharing non-consensual intimate images (both real and AI-generated) and establishes a framework requiring platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of notification. The bill's journey represents a rare moment of unity in Washington—drafted with Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar, passing unanimously in the Senate, and ultimately receiving crucial support from First Lady Melania Trump, who helped secure its passage through the House.

The law empowers victims with a straightforward process: contact the platform hosting unauthorized intimate content, and they must remove it within 48 hours or face legal consequences. As Cruz explains, "It shouldn't take a sitting US senator making a phone call to get action." Using existing notice-and-takedown mechanisms already familiar to tech companies, the law gives victims the ability to take their lives back.

Have you or someone you know been affected by non-consensual intimate images? Share this episode to spread awareness about this powerful new legal protection and join the conversation about protecting dignity in our digital world.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Introduction to Voices for VoicesⓇ

1:30 Meeting Senator Ted Cruz

2:24 The Problem of Non-consensual Images

4:04 Elliston's Story and Creating the Act

7:23 Bipartisan Support and First Lady's Role

11:06 How to Use the Take it Down Law

12:35 Voice of the Year Award Presentation

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