What the Federal TAKE IT DOWN Act Requires

What the TAKE IT DOWN Act Requires

The TAKE IT DOWN Act creates federal criminal prohibitions for defined nonconsensual intimate visual depictions and requires covered online platforms to operate a notice-and-removal process. After receiving a valid request, a covered platform must act as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours to remove the identified depiction and make reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies.

The law covers qualifying authentic material and qualifying synthetic intimate depictions. It does not create one general rule for every deepfake, impersonation, voice clone, or harmful post.

The law has two different jobs

Public Law 119-12 became law on May 19, 2025.

Section 2 amended 47 U.S.C. 223. It defines criminal offenses involving the knowing publication of certain authentic intimate depictions and digital forgeries. It also covers certain threats. The elements differ depending on whether the identifiable person is an adult or a minor and whether the depiction is authentic or forged.

Section 3 creates the platform process. Its deadline passed on May 19, 2026, and the FTC began enforcement that day.

flowchart TD
    A["TAKE IT DOWN Act"] --> B["Section 2: defined criminal prohibitions"]
    A --> C["Section 3: covered-platform process"]
    B --> D["Elements, exceptions, penalties, threats, restitution"]
    C --> E["Notice, valid request, removal, known identical copies"]
    C --> F["FTC enforcement"]

Someone seeking removal does not have to prove a criminal case to use the platform process. A platform request and a prosecution are separate legal paths.

What counts as a digital forgery

The statute defines a digital forgery as an intimate visual depiction of an identifiable person created through software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or other technological means, including by altering an authentic depiction.

The definition adds a limiting test. Viewed as a whole by a reasonable person, the forged depiction must be indistinguishable from an authentic depiction of that person.

That makes the legal term narrower than ordinary conversation about deepfakes. A false voice recording, non-intimate face swap, parody, fake profile, or obviously artificial image does not become covered by Section 3 merely because someone calls it a deepfake.

Consent to creation is not consent to publication

The law defines consent as affirmative, conscious, and voluntary authorization, free from force, fraud, duress, misrepresentation, or coercion.

It also states that consent to create an intimate depiction does not establish consent to publish it. Prior disclosure to another person does not establish permission for that other person to publish it.

That distinction addresses a persistent source of confusion. A private image does not become public property because it was created voluntarily or shared in confidence.

Which platforms are covered

A covered platform is a public-facing website, online service, online application, or mobile application that primarily provides a forum for user-generated content. The definition can also reach a service that regularly publishes, curates, hosts, or makes nonconsensual intimate depictions available in the course of business.

The statute excludes broadband internet access and email. It also excludes a service made primarily of provider-selected, non-user-generated content when chat, comments, or other interaction are merely incidental, subject to the regular-course condition above.

The FTC says the definition can reach social media, messaging, image and video sharing, gaming, and other services. Whether a particular service is covered depends on the statutory definition and the service's facts.

What a valid removal request contains

The request must be written. It may come from the identifiable person or an authorized person acting for them.

The law does not say that a person must organize a mass-reporting campaign. It creates an individual notice path.

What the platform must do

The platform must publish a clear and conspicuous notice about the process. The notice must be easy to read, use plain language, describe the platform's responsibilities, and explain how to submit a request.

After a valid request arrives, the platform must remove the identified depiction as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours. It must also make reasonable efforts during that period to identify and remove known identical copies.

The phrase known identical copies matters. The statute does not promise that the platform will find every transformed, cropped, encrypted, private, or previously unknown version. Technical tools can support the process, but they do not rewrite the legal text.

The law also limits liability for a platform's good-faith disabling or removal of material claimed to be a nonconsensual intimate depiction when the apparent facts support that action.

How the FTC enforces Section 3

A failure to reasonably comply with Section 3 is treated as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice under the FTC Act. The statute also extends this Section 3 enforcement authority to nonprofit organizations that might otherwise fall outside ordinary FTC jurisdiction.

The FTC currently says civil penalties may reach $53,088 per violation. That amount can change and should be verified directly before a real compliance or publication decision.

The agency recommends assigning a tracking number, providing status information, supporting reports from people without accounts, and considering hashing to limit reappearance. Those recommendations are useful operational guidance. They should not be presented as though each recommendation were a separate quoted field in the statute.

What the Act does not settle

The TAKE IT DOWN Act does not erase state law, other federal law, private civil rights, platform policy, or contractual remedies. It also does not guarantee that one removal request will clear the entire internet.

The Department of Justice explains a separate federal civil claim under 15 U.S.C. 6851. That provision predates the TAKE IT DOWN Act and has its own proof requirements, exceptions, procedures, and possible relief.

For a practical first path, read [[How to Request Removal of Nonconsensual Intimate Imagery]]. Platform teams can use [[How Platforms Can Build a TAKE IT DOWN Act Process]] as an editorial control map, subject to qualified review.

This page provides general legal information, not legal advice. It does not decide whether any depiction, request, person, service, or act falls within the law. It was reviewed against the enacted text and current FTC guidance on July 28, 2026.

This article was developed with AI assistance and reviewed against the primary sources linked above. Dalton Anderson is responsible for the final editorial judgment.