MINNEAPOLIS — Last summer, Molly Kelley of Otsego discovered that innocent photos she posted on her private social media account had been altered into deep-fake pornographic images that were posted online by a family friend.

“The stress of the discovery of seeing a hyper-realistic twisted version of myself that I had no part in creating was overwhelming,” said the mother of two, who spoke in support of the Take It Down Act, proposed federal legislation that would make non-consensual publication of explicit images on the Internet a federal crime.

The bill combating so-called “revenge porn” is the byproduct of a rare bit of bipartisanship in Congress, spearheaded by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. The Senate unanimously passed the measure earlier this year, and now both lawmakers are pushing the House to approve it by the end of the year.

“The fact that we are able to do this together is kind of a miracle in kind of a polarizing time,” said Klobuchar during a news conference Tuesday. But, she noted, “this issue is too important to ignore.”

Kelley was among 85 women, many of them Minnesotans, who were affected by deep-fake images on social media that were posted by a man who she said has never faced any consequences. When she reported the images to law enforcement, the reaction “was inconsistent and, at times, dismissive.”

Minnesota and other states have laws in place to prohibit the spread of such images, but both senators said a federal mandate would prove far more effective in combating a growing problem. The proposed law calls for prison terms of up to three years for those convicted of posting nonconsensual intimate images.

Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said his agency has fielded more than 11,000 tips this year alone involving nonconsensual explicit images, some of which were being used to extort victims. The backing of the federal government in these cases would be an effective tool to combat the problem, he said.

The images are sometimes altered using artificial intelligence, or are private photos that are disseminated, often by disgruntled partners or spouses. Celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lawrence, count themselves as victims. The majority of the images posted online are of women or teenage girls, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, an advocacy group. One of Tuesday’s speakers was Samantha McCoy, now a Texas attorney and advocate for sexual assault survivors, whose rape in college was posted online by her assailant.

The proposed law would require social media companies and technology platforms to remove the images within 48 hours of the victim reporting them. Klobuchar noted that tech giants Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — as well as Microsoft and Snapchat have endorsed the bill.

Kelley said the fake images, which were posted when she was six months pregnant, affected her physical and emotional health as well as her ability to work.

“When the initial shock wore off, a persistent reality set in: these images will likely exist forever,” she said. “It is an intolerable weight.”

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