Sen. Ted Cruz proposes new legislation following North Texas girl's 'deepfake' AI horror story
DALLAS - Artificial intelligence opened the floodgates for the creation of fake pornographic images made without consent.
A U.S. Senate committee held a hearing Wednesday in Dallas to address the growing problem.
Senator Ted Cruz is proposing the bipartisan legislation called the Take It Down Act.
An Aledo high school student is one of the victims of a teenager using AI to create a fake nude image of her from an innocent Instagram photo. She bravely shared her story.
"On October 2, 2023, I woke up to messages from a friend that photos were on social media, and not just any photos," recalled Elliston Berry.
That October day changed her life.
"I was just 14 when I felt my future was ruined," she said.
Berry’s mother, Anna McAdams, explained how a 15-year-old boy at Aledo High School sexually exploited her daughter and her eight friends.
"He decided to take beautiful innocent photos from their social media platforms and impose nude photos on them with an app from Google," she said.
And if that day was not bad enough, Berry’s nightmare continued for eight months.
McAdams' messages to Snapchat received no response.
"I was told by sheriffs that don't expect to hear back. You’re probably not gonna hear anything back even though we did a warrant," she said.
Within an hour, the images were taken down.
"It should not take a sitting senator getting on the phone to take these down," Cruz said. "If Elliston were Taylor Swift, they would be pulled down and should be. But they also should be pulled down for every teenager in Texas. You should have the same right. And that demonstrates that Snapchat knows exactly how to pull it down."
McAdams accused her daughter's own school district of not handling the situation properly.
"Even though he was caught, we were still not allowed to know his identity," she said. "The sheriff's office and school said they had to protect his identity as a minor."
"I felt unprotected walking through school," Berry said.
"Since a lot of these crimes are committed by teenage boys, is this going to bring prison time for them?" FOX 4 Reporter Lori Brown asked Cruz.
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"It potentially will if they commit a federal crime and abuse fellow classmates, they should face consequences," he said.
"Are you getting any pushback from big tech on this?" Brown asked.
"We haven't to date," Cruz said. "We have seen the pattern that when victims ask them to take this down, they drag their feet and don't comply. But they have to know it is the right thing to do."
Cruz says he also hopes this bill will prompt school districts to update their codes of conduct.
The student who victimized Berry was only given in-school suspension.