--- title: The Justice Department is backing xAI against... description: The US Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting xAI's legal challenge to Minnesota's HF 1606 law, which bans AI 'nudification' tools and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban | daily.dev og:description: The US Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting xAI's legal challenge to Minnesota's HF 1606 law, which bans AI 'nudification' tools and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/eLH5Iya08.png og:image:alt: The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The US Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting xAI's legal challenge to Minnesota's HF 1606 law, which bans AI 'nudification' tools and imposes strict liability with penalties up to $500,000. A federal judge heard arguments on the requested preliminary injunction and said he would rule soon, while the DOJ argued the state law is broader than federal statutes like the PROTECT Act and TAKE IT DOWN Act, lacking exemptions for consent or public concern that federal law includes. The filing ties into the Trump administration's push for a single national AI standard over disparate state rules. Minnesota's attorney general's office countered that xAI's terms of service are insufficient given tens of thousands of reported abusive users. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What does Minnesota's HF 1606 law ban and what are the penalties for violating it? HF 1606 bars anyone who owns or controls a website, app, or software from letting users 'nudify' or sexually alter images using AI, imposing penalties of up to $500,000. It is a strict-liability rule, meaning a platform can be held liable regardless of whether it knew about or intended the result, with liability turning solely on whether a user managed to create a covered image. _Following how state AI laws affect platform liability helps teams building AI image tools stay compliant, a topic tracked on daily.dev._ ### How does the TAKE IT DOWN Act differ from Minnesota's AI nudify ban? The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed by President Trump in 2025, sets a notice-and-removal system giving platforms 48 hours to take down flagged images and is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. It requires that an act be done knowingly, exempts matters of public concern, and applies only when an adult does not consent, whereas Minnesota's law has none of those limits and can apply even to self-generated images. _Developers weighing compliance across federal and state AI rules can follow this legal patchwork on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Grok helped strike 2,000 targets at Iran. Now its pollution is ‘national security’.](https://daily.dev/posts/grok-helped-strike-2-000-targets-at-iran-now-its-pollution-is-national-security--dvx11ozj9) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI image tools must follow privacy rules, watchdogs say](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-image-tools-must-follow-privacy-rules-watchdogs-say-rywrtd3pr) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Download: murky AI surveillance laws, and the White House cracks down on defiant labs](https://daily.dev/posts/the-download-murky-ai-surveillance-laws-and-the-white-house-cracks-down-on-defiant-labs-dt57mspax) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#ai-regulation](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-regulation) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08"},"datePublished":"2026-08-20T11:00:37.290Z","dateModified":"2026-08-20T11:01:01.024Z","description":"The US Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting xAI's legal challenge to Minnesota's HF 1606 law, which bans AI 'nudification' tools and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7d4d2d22a6b19d706f368423f7d2ca90?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7d4d2d22a6b19d706f368423f7d2ca90?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"genai,ai-regulation","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Justice Department is backing xAI against Minnesota’s nudify ban"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-justice-department-is-backing-xai-against-minnesota-s-nudify-ban-elh5iya08#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What does Minnesota's HF 1606 law ban and what are the penalties for violating it?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"HF 1606 bars anyone who owns or controls a website, app, or software from letting users 'nudify' or sexually alter images using AI, imposing penalties of up to $500,000. 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