Heroic Republican Reps. Massie and Burlison
April 30, 2025
Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Eric Burlison of Missouri broke with their party and voted against revenge porn legislation backed by First Lady Melania Trump.
The Take It Down Act criminalizes the promulgation of non-consensual sexual imagery on the internet, including AI-generated “deepfakes.” Now, while I certainly oppose porn, revenge porn, sexual imagery, and deepfakes, it is simply not the job of the federal government to concern itself with these things. And as Massie said: “I feel this is a slippery slope, ripe for abuse, with unintended consequences.”
The bill was introduced by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The vote was by Unanimous Consent in the Senate so no record of individual votes was taken.
Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] writes from central Florida. He is the author of The Free Society; War, Christianity, and the State: Essays on the Follies of Christian Militarism; War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Policy; King James, His Bible, and Its Translators, and many other books. His newest book is The U.S. Proxy War in Ukraine.
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