On May 19, 2026, the platform-compliance provisions of the TAKE IT DOWN Act (Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act) become enforceable, two days from today. <cite index="1-5,1-6">Signed by President Donald Trump on May 19, 2025, the law's criminal prohibitions took effect immediately, while covered platforms were given one year — until May 19, 2026 — to establish the required notice-and-removal process.</cite>
What the statute requires
The TAKE IT DOWN Act amends Section 223 of the Communications Act of 1934 to add new criminal prohibitions and creates new obligations for online services that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will enforce. <cite index="4-1">The bill generally prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of individuals, both authentic and computer-generated, and requires certain online platforms to promptly remove such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence.</cite>
<cite index="3-16">"Covered platforms" is defined to include public websites, online services and applications, and mobile applications that either primarily provide a forum for user-generated content or are primarily designed to publish nonconsensual intimate visual depictions.</cite> <cite index="3-17">Covered platforms do not include broadband Internet access providers, email services, or online services or websites with primarily preselected content where the content is not user-generated but curated by the provider.</cite>
The takedown mechanics are prescriptive. <cite index="7-12">For a removal request to be considered "valid," it must be in writing and include a physical or electronic signature of the individual making the request (or their representative); an identification of, and information reasonably sufficient for the covered platform to locate, the intimate visual depiction in question; a brief statement of the individual's good-faith belief that the depiction was not consensual; and the individual's contact information.</cite> <cite index="7-13">Following the receipt of a valid removal request, covered platforms have 48 hours to remove the content, as well as to make "reasonable efforts to identify and remove any known identical copies." Failure to comply with the Act's takedown provisions constitutes an unfair or deceptive act under Section 18(a)(1)(B) of the FTCA.</cite>
Scope and penalties
The Act treats AI-generated content as a first-class subject of regulation. <cite index="3-8">In the case of deepfakes (referred to in the Act as "digital forgeries"), the Act prohibits any person from using an interactive computer service to knowingly publish a deepfake of an adult without the consent of the subject where what is depicted was not voluntarily exposed by the subject in a public or commercial setting; publication was intended to cause harm or causes harm; and what is depicted is not a matter of public concern.</cite> <cite index="3-10,3-11">The Act imposes stricter exclusions for intimate visual depictions and deepfakes involving minors (defined as those under 18). A person may not use an interactive computer service to knowingly publish intimate visual depictions or any deepfake of an identifiable minor if there is intent to abuse, humiliate, harass or degrade the minor or arouse or gratify sexual desire of any person.</cite>
Enforcement is vested in the FTC, with civil penalties available under the FTC Act. The statute also includes a safe harbor: <cite index="3-23">the Act limits liability for covered platforms that remove intimate visual depictions that should not have been taken down so long as the covered platform was acting in good faith.</cite>
Early enforcement and unresolved questions
The criminal track has already produced one case. <cite index="8-12,8-13">The criminal provisions of the law went into effect in May 2025, and the first conviction came down in April 2026. An Ohio man pleaded guilty to counts of "cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries."</cite>
Legal observers continue to flag interpretive ambiguities. The Congressional Research Service notes that <cite index="1-15">the TAKE IT DOWN Act does not expressly address the relationship between its notice-and-removal requirements and Section 230, though it provides that a covered platform shall not be liable for any claim based on the covered platform's good faith disabling of access to, or removal of, material claimed to be a nonconsensual intimate visual depiction in certain circumstances.</cite> Civil liberties groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy & Technology, have warned that the breadth of the takedown obligation may incentivize over-removal of lawful content.