On todays episode of Decoder, Im talking to Verge policy editor Adi Robertson about the Take It Down Act, which is part of a long line of bills that would make it illegal to distribute non-consensual intimate imagery, or NCII. Thats a broad term that encompasses what people used to call revenge porn, but which now includes things like deepfaked nudes.The bill was sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and it just passed the Senate. It would create criminal penalties for people who share NCII, including AI-generated imagery, and also force platforms to take it down within 48 hours of a report or face financial penalties.NCII is a real and devastating problem on the internet it ruins a lot of peoples lives, and AI is just making it worse. There are a lot of good reasons youd want to pass a bill like this, but Adi just wrote a long piece arguing that giving the Trump administration new powers over speech in this way would be a mistake. Specifically, she wrote that it would be handing Trump a weapon with which to attack speech and speech platforms he doesnt like.At a high level, her argument is that Trump is much more likely to wield a law like this against his enemies which means pretty much anyone he doesnt personally like or agree with and much more likely to shield the people and companies he considers friends from the consequences. And we know who his friends are: its Elon Musk, who now works as part of the Trump administration while at the same time running X, which is full of NCII.Now, Adi and I have been covering online speech and how its regulated for about as long as The Verge has existed. We have gone back and forth on where the lines should be drawn and who should draw them as many times as two people can over the years. But that conversation has always presupposed a stable, rational system of policymaking thats based on the equal application of law.Here in 2025, Trump has made it clear that he can and will selectively enforce the law, and that changes everything. Once you break the equal application of law, you break a lot of things and theres just no evidence Trump is interested in the equal application of law. Youll hear us really wrestle with this here. The problem doesnt go away just because the solutions are getting worse, or that the people entrusted with enforcing the law are getting more chaotic.So in this episode, Adi and I really get into the details of the Take It Down Act, how it might be weaponized, and why we ultimately cant trust anything the Trump administration says about protecting the victims of this abuse.The Take It Down Act isnt a law, its a weapon | The VergeA bill combatting the spread of AI deepfakes just passed the Senate | The VergeWelcome to the era of gangster tech regulation | The VergeFTC workers are getting terminated | The VergeBluesky deletes AI protest video of Trump sucking Musks toes | 404 MediaTrump supports Take It Down Act so he can silence critics | EFFScarlett Johansson calls for deepfake ban after AI video goes viral | The VergeThe FCC is a weapon in Trumps war on free speech | DecoderTrolls have flooded X with graphic Taylor Swift AI fakes | The VergeTeen girls confront an epidemic of deepfake nudes in schools | NYTQuestions or comments about this episode? Hit us up at decoder@theverge.com. We really do read every email!Decoder with Nilay PatelA podcast from The Verge about big ideas and other problems.SUBSCRIBE NOW!See More: