Anti-pornography advocates from east Idaho invited to White House signing of Take It Down Act
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WASHINGTON – With bipartisan support, President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law Monday, and several local advocates were there for the historic occasion.
The Take It Down Act criminalizes the non-consensual distribution of sexually explicit materials, including AI-generated images and videos, also known as deepfakes. The law also requires online platforms to remove the unauthorized content within 48 hours of being notified.
The signing ceremony, held Monday in the White House Rose Garden, was attended by lawmakers, advocates and victims. East Idahoans in attendance included Craig Cobia of Sugar City and Andrew Russell of Idaho Falls, who are, respectively, the CEO and former chief of staff of Citizens for Decency, and Idaho State Sen. Kevin Cook of Idaho Falls.
The Take It Down Act was sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, was co-author. It had unanimous support from the Senate and was approved with near-total consensus in the House with a vote of 409-2. It’s the first major piece of federal legislation to be signed into law during Trump’s second term to receive such solid support from both sides of the aisle.
First Lady Melania Trump was instrumental in garnering support for the movement against digital exploitation through her “Be Best” initiative, bringing bipartisan lawmakers together with victims and online safety advocates in a roundtable on Capitol Hill in March.
“This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused through non-consensual intimate imagery,” Melania Trump said at the signing ceremony.
In his remarks, President Trump noted that the Take it Down Act is the first federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imagery posted without the subject’s consent.
“With the rise of AI image generation, countless women have been harassed with deepfakes and other explicit images distributed against their will,” he said. “It’s just so horribly wrong and it’s a very abusive situation. … And today we’re making it totally illegal.”
Cook, a Republican who represents District 32 in the Idaho Senate, says he hopes the example of bipartisanship on this issue will trickle down to the Idaho Legislature, where efforts he has supported attempting to limit access to pornography by minors have failed. In March, Idaho Senate Bill 1158 failed to advance beyond the Senate State Affairs Committee. Critics of the measure included the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank with concerns about censorship.
Among other objections to the bill, the Idaho Freedom Foundation states on its website that “the act would infringe on property rights by forcing consumers to purchase devices that automatically turn on censorship filters, even when this goes against their needs and preferences.”
Cook says he believes no one wants minors to have easy access to pornography, and he hopes Idaho legislators will take a cue from the federal government’s support of the Take It Down Act to come up with solutions to help Idaho parents keep their kids from accessing pornography.
Cobia founded Citizens for Decency in 2008 after learning of a father of eight whose pornography addiction contributed to his taking his own life. Since its founding, the organization has advocated against pornography while providing resources for those affected by it. Cobia was surprised and honored to be invited to the White House for the signing of the Take It Down Act, which he says is an exciting breakthrough in the grassroots efforts combating pornography on the internet.
“This is a watershed moment. It truly is,” Cobia says. “I just felt extremely grateful that people recognize the harm that this is causing and that they unified in an otherwise polarized political climate to do something.”