Mace's Deepfake Bills and Takedown Power Without Process

Rep. Nancy Mace's largest single cluster of women's-safety bills targets deepfake pornography and nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII), and it is where the most detailed civil-liberties objection to her agenda lands. The harm is real, AI-generated sexual images are a genuine and growing problem, and most of these bills have bipartisan support. But the enforcement model they advance, a mandatory takedown on demand, was criticized on the record for handing out the power to erase someone's speech with no verification and no process for the person accused. As chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, Mace held two hearings on deepfakes (November 8, 2023 and March 12, 2024) before introducing or extending this legislation.

The bills are listed first; the documented objection, and why it maps directly onto due process, follows.

The bills

• Protect Victims of Digital Exploitation and Manipulation Act, H.R. 7567 (118th), reintroduced as H.R. 2564 (119th). Mace as sponsor. Federal criminal offense for nonconsensual AI deepfake pornography of identifiable people.
• DEFIANCE Act of 2024, H.R. 7569 (118th). Mace as original cosponsor (lead sponsor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY). Federal civil cause of action for deepfake-imagery victims.
• Increased Accountability for Nonconsensual Pornography Act, H.R. 8180 (118th), reintroduced as H.R. 2373 (119th). Mace as sponsor. Raises civil damages to $500,000 and broadens the definition of a covered "intimate image."
• RESPECT Act, H.R. 4600 (119th). Mace as sponsor. Increases criminal penalties for sharing or threatening to share NCII and deepfakes; her office describes it as building on the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
• HONOR Act, H.R. 5090 (119th), per her office. Mace as sponsor. Extends UCMJ prohibitions on nonconsensual imagery, including deepfakes, to service members.

The framework underneath: the TAKE IT DOWN Act

The TAKE IT DOWN Act (S. 146 / H.R. 633), sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar and signed into law as Public Law 119-12 on May 19, 2025, is the backbone Mace's RESPECT Act extends. Mace was not a sponsor or cosponsor of the TAKE IT DOWN Act, but she chaired the deepfake hearings that built the case for it, and her own bill strengthens its scheme. The law has two parts: a criminal prohibition on knowingly publishing NCII, and, effective May 2026, a duty on "covered platforms" to remove flagged content within 48 hours of a request, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

The documented objection: takedown power without verification

It is the 48-hour takedown duty, not the criminal penalties for genuine NCII, that civil-liberties groups warned about. Their concern maps directly onto due process: a system that removes content on demand, with no verification and no penalty for false reports, gives the person who posted the content no process before it disappears, and invites abuse by anyone willing to file a bad-faith claim.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation analyzed the framework in a piece whose title names the stakes, The Senate's TAKE IT DOWN Act Threatens Free Expression and Due Process. EFF's Joe Mullin wrote that the takedown system reaches "a much broader category of content, potentially any images involving intimate or sexual content at all," beyond verified NCII; that "the bill contains no protections against frivolous or bad-faith takedown requests"; and that the 48-hour window "rarely [gives] enough time to verify whether the speech is actually illegal," pushing platforms toward automated filters that "frequently flag legal content, from fair-use commentary to news reporting." EFF also warned that encrypted-messaging services "may be served with notices they simply cannot comply with."

A coalition of twelve organizations led by the Center for Democracy & Technology, and including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the Authors Guild, and Public Knowledge, told Congress the law "is likely unconstitutional and will undoubtedly have a censorious impact on users' free expression," that its notice system would "result in the takedown of consensual, constitutionally protected speech," and that it carried no exceptions for satire, journalism, or matters of public concern, and no anti-abuse provisions.

In other words: the harm the bills target is real, but the enforcement mechanism Mace's RESPECT Act builds upon was criticized, on the record, by name, for handing out takedown power with no check against false accusations, the same due-process concern that runs through her broader women's-safety record.

Sources

• Congress.gov, S. 146, TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12) · Mace bill pages linked inline above
• EFF, Congress Passes TAKE IT DOWN Act Despite Major Flaws · EFF, The Senate's TAKE IT DOWN Act Threatens Free Expression and Due Process
• Tech Policy Press, Free Speech Advocates Express Concerns as TAKE IT DOWN Act Passes US Senate
• Rep. Mace's office, RESPECT Act announcement

See also

• Women's-Safety Legislation
• Rape Shield Enhancement Act
• The "Breach of Trust" surveillance hearing · "Due process is for citizens"