06.21.2024

e-Newsletter: Week of June 21st

Good Evening,

As a father of two teenage daughters, I can’t begin to imagine the humiliation a teenager faces waking up to learn that someone has created explicit AI-generated images of them. As the Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce Committee, I was proud to introduce the TAKE IT DOWN Act this week to protect victims of this heinous crime. My bill would deter bad actors from publishing these photos and ensuring that, if they are posted, Big Tech is forced to remove the images. To unveil my bipartisan bill, I held a press conference where I was joined by Elliston Berry, a victim from Fort Worth, Texas, Elliston’s mother Anna McAdams, Dorota Mani, mother of Francesca Mani, a victim from New Jersey, Yiota Souras, Chief Legal Officer of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and Stephen Turkheimer, Vice President of Public Policy at Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Together, we are committed to protecting and empowering victims of AI deepfakes so they get the justice they deserve.

“[There has been] a staggering increase in exploitative sexual material online largely due to predators taking advantage of new technologies, like generative artificial intelligence. Now, almost instantaneously, perpetrators can use an app on their phones to create fake explicit images depicting real people. Commonly referred to as deepfakes. … Up to 95% of all internet deep fakes depict sexual imagery with the vast majority of it targeting women and girls. … Young girls are waking up to a text message from their friends saying there's an explicit photo of them circulating on social media, … and yet the photos aren’t real. … Imagine being 14 years old and showing up at school where your classmates believe they have seen an explicit photo of you that is a fake and a fraud. The photos may not be real, but the pain and the humiliation is. For many young teens, that changes their lives forever. Even worse, these photos can prove very difficult to remove from the internet. They can spread quickly from one phone to another, to another, to another causing many women and girls to have to live with being victimized over and over again.”

If someone posts copyrighted material on social media, it will be taken down within minutes as ensured under Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If passed into law, our TAKE IT DOWN Act would require social media companies and websites to take down non-consensual deepfake explicit images, and the law will also allow for prosecution of the person posting the image.

I joined GMA 3 this week, alongside Elliston and her mother, as she bravely shared her story with the world. At just 14 years old, she became a target of non-consensual imagery created using AI. Now, at 15 years old, she is speaking out.

“It has just shown me to keep my guard up and to be ready for anything. … And I wanted to say that if this is happening [to you], you are not alone. As AI is getting so normalized and so easily accessible this [can] happen to anybody”

- Elliston Berry

We also sat down with Fox and Friends earlier this week where Elliston’s mom Anna shared her experience as a parent dealing with this traumatic act of fraud against her daughter.

“It was devastating. As a mom, all you want to do is protect your child, and there was no way for me to foresee anything like this ever happening. So, we were totally outside of our element as we were trying to figure out what we do with this. … We went to the school board, to the school, [and] to the police … trying to see if we could get some help. Not knowing who it was, there was little they could do. He didn't do it on school time, so the school wasn't able to track who it was.”

-Anna McAdams

Throughout my career in the Senate, I’ve been committed to fighting for justice. Part of doing so is ensuring honest, good-faith judges oversee our federal bench. As a member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I questioned Biden’s nominee for a lifetime appointment to the Sixth Circuit, Karla Campbell, who is a leftist judge with ties to radical organizations. She donated $1500 to a candidate who called 52 Republicans (including Tim Scott) “Jim Crow Senators” and said myself and others are siding with the devil in a tweet — and then refused to answer why she gave to the candidate.

“A judge should not be a political activist. Your record demonstrates to me, a long history of being a political activist, but not just an activist, an activist who affiliates with extreme and radical organizations. … You have been a legal adviser to [‘Workers’ Dignity’] since 2013. That is what you have publicly printed on your … biography. It is what has been described in the Tennessee Bar Association when you were nominated that explicitly says, ‘She served as a legal advisor for local workers’ rights nonprofit Workers’ Dignity.’ Now, why is it that you're distancing yourself from them? The reason is because they are utterly radical.”

It’s completely unsurprising that the Biden administration has consistently appointed radicals to serve in the executive branch. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I also questioned Barbara Leaf, Biden’s Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, who has overseen the administration’s radical anti-Israel and pro-Iran agenda. When she testified in front of cameras, however, she refused to own that agenda. Once again, another hypocritical move from the Biden administration to avoid taking responsibility for their radical actions.

“Israel has said it is their policy to utterly eliminate Hamas. Does this administration, does President Biden support Israel and its commitment to utterly eliminate Hamas? Then why are you calling for an immediate ceasefire before they eliminate Hamas?”

Rest assured, I will always fight justice and truth. God Bless!

Keep Texas Strong,

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