United States of America: Executive order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence including content moderation regulation was revoked

On 20 January 2025, the President of the United States issued an executive order revoking a series of previous executive actions implemented by the former administration, including the executive order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, including content moderation regulation. The revoked order had aimed to reduce risks posed by “synthetic content” and had required the Secretary of Commerce to issue a report on techniques and methods of identifying content generated by AI and its provenience, labelling synthetic content, detecting synthetic content, preventing generative AI from producing child sexual abuse material and auditing and maintaining synthetic content. The new executive order directs federal agencies to take immediate steps to end the implementation of the revoked orders and tasks the Directors of the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council to review and rescind or amend actions taken under the revoked orders within 45 days. Additionally, the National Security Advisor is instructed to review all National Security Memoranda issued from 20 January 2021 to 20 January 2025 and recommend any for rescission.