TAKE IT DOWN Act signed into US law, targeting deepfake intimate images

The TAKE IT DOWN Act is a US federal law that criminalizes the nonconsensual online publication of intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, and requires platforms to remove them on request.

The President signed the bill, S.146, into law on May 19, 2025, when it became Public Law No. 119-12.

What it is

The law's short title is the Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act, or the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

It amends the Communications Act of 1934 to create federal criminal offenses and separately creates notice-and-removal obligations for online platforms that the Federal Trade Commission enforces.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 409 to 2 before heading to the President.

What it requires

Covered platforms, meaning websites, online services or applications that primarily provide a forum for user-generated content, must remove reported intimate visual depictions within 48 hours of notification.

The criminal prohibition on publishing nonconsensual intimate images, including digital forgeries created with AI or other technological means, took effect immediately upon signature, while covered platforms have one year, until May 19, 2026, to stand up the required notice-and-removal process.

Violators face mandatory restitution along with criminal penalties that can include prison, a fine, or both.

A person convicted of a publication offense involving an adult faces fines and imprisonment of up to two years, while offenses involving a minor carry potential imprisonment of up to three years.

What security leaders should do

Trust and safety and platform security teams at any public-facing website or app that hosts user-generated content should confirm whether they meet the statute's definition of a covered platform, since that status triggers the 48-hour removal duty ahead of the May 19, 2026 deadline for the notice-and-removal process.

Security and legal teams should build intake, verification, and takedown workflows now so that reports of intimate images, including AI-generated digital forgeries, can be actioned within the required window, and should coordinate with abuse, legal, and incident-response functions since the FTC is the enforcer of the platform-side requirements.

Teams building or deploying generative AI image and video tools should also treat the law's criminal provisions on digital forgeries as a driver for content-provenance and abuse-prevention controls, since the statute reaches depictions created through software, machine learning, or artificial intelligence that are indistinguishable from authentic images.