By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Melania Trump is heading to Capitol Hill on Monday for a roundtable discussion with members of Congress and others on a bill that could make it a federal crime to post intimate imagery online without an individual’s consent and help require the swift removal of such content.
It will be her first solo public appearance since she resumed the role of first lady on Jan. 20.
The “Take It Down Act,” sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., passed the Senate in February. Melania Trump’s public show of support for the legislation could help get it through the Republican-controlled House and to President Donald Trump’s desk to become law.
“I urge Congress to pass this important legislation to safeguard our youth,” the first lady said on X, the social media platform.
Cruz is among the lawmakers joining the first lady for the discussion in the Capitol’s Mansfield Room. Online safety advocates and survivors of non-consensual intimate imagery were also invited.
Cruz said Monday on social media that the measure was inspired by Elliston Berry and her mother, who visited his office after Snapchat refused for nearly a year to remove an AI-generated nonconsensual graphic image, also known as a “deepfake.”
“No one should have to experience the pain, humiliation, and trauma that so many Americans have at the hands of AI deepfakes,” Cruz said.
Meta, which owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, supports the legislation.
The bill would make it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish intimate imagery online without an individual’s consent, including realistic, computer-generated intimate images of people who can be identified.
If the bill becomes law, social media platforms would be required to remove such images within 48 hours of a victim’s request and take steps to delete duplicate content.
“Having an intimate image – real or AI-generated – shared without consent can be devastating and Meta developed and backs many efforts to help prevent it,” Meta communications director Andy Stone said on X.
In the first Trump administration, Melania Trump led a youth initiative she called “ Be Best,” which included a focus on online safety. She has said she’s interested in reviving the program.
The first lady has made few public appearances since the start of the administration.
She accompanied the president to survey natural disaster sites in North Carolina and California at the end of inauguration week in January, and on Feb. 22 joined her husband to host the nation’s governors for a black-tie dinner at the White House.
The first lady is expected at the Capitol again on Tuesday for the president’s prime-time address to a joint session of Congress.