Exclusive: Former Biden official works to squash deepfakes bill worries
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
A former Biden official and Big Tech foe is going to bat for a White House-backed deepfakes bill as rumblings from congressional Democrats emerge.
Why it matters: The bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act is moving quickly despite concerns over the bill's constitutionality and Democratic outrage over how President Trump and his allies are influencing legislative work.
- The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday voted 49-1 to approve the bill, which requires platforms to quickly remove non-consensual intimate images and criminalizes posting such content.
Behind the scenes: In a memo shared exclusively with Axios that was given to E&C members Monday afternoon, former Biden DOJ official Slade Bond says the Supreme Court has made it clear the First Amendment does not shield certain forms of harmful content, such as child sexual abuse materials.
- Bond says the bill has clear exceptions that would prevent lawful content from being affected.
- Tech group Americans for Responsible Innovation tapped Slade to write the memo.
Between the lines: Bond is highly respected among Democrats. He was once the top Dem antitrust staffer in the House, and has been on the frontlines of going after Big Tech.
- Republicans don't need much convincing: President Trump gave it a shout out during his address to Congress earlier this year after First Lady Melania Trump went to the Capitol to endorse it.
- The memo from Bond is largely geared toward some Democrats on the committee who may be hesitant to back the bill.
The other side: The Center for Democracy and Technology says the bill's 48-hour notice and takedown mechanism is likely unconstitutional as it incentivizes automated content detection and filtering techniques that tend to result in the suppression of lawful speech.
- Civil society groups and cybersecurity experts are asking Congress to exempt encrypted tech products in the bill because "invasive content monitoring technologies" would hurt privacy and freedom of speech.
- Democrats introduced several amendments, including one from Rep. Debbie Dingell to protect constitutional speech, but no amendments were adopted.
The intrigue: The TAKE IT DOWN Act almost became law last year, but Elon Musk helped to tank the continuing resolution it would have advanced with.
- "I've got concerns about Elon Musk and what a wrecking ball he has been to many things, including this legislation. This was going to pass and you saw that he single-handedly provoked Donald Trump to blow the thing up," Rep. Madeleine Dean, a co-sponsor, said in an interview.
- "But I'm past that," she added. "For the purposes of this legislation, I feel an urgency to get it done. The harms are real and growing in numbers like you can't believe."
The bottom line: Tech bills are regularly bogged down by First Amendment fights and politics, but the TAKE IT DOWN Act is on a gliding path.
