The 2025 TAKE IT DOWN Act and the 48-hour takedown duty platforms have had since May 2026

Since May 19, 2026, public websites and apps built around user-generated content have had to remove intimate images posted without the pictured person's consent within 48 hours of a valid request. The duty comes from the TAKE IT DOWN Act, Public Law 119-12, passed by the United States Congress and approved on May 19, 2025, which gave these covered platforms one year to set up a removal process. The same law made publishing such images, including AI-made “digital forgeries,” a federal crime. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the platform rules.

What became a crime

The Act added a new offense to the Communications Act: using an online service to knowingly publish an intimate image of an identifiable person without consent. It covers authentic images and digital forgeries, which the law defines as intimate images made with software, machine learning, artificial intelligence or other technology that a reasonable person could not tell apart from an authentic image of the person.

In cases involving adults, the offense also requires, among other conditions, that the image was not voluntarily exposed in a public or commercial setting, that it is not a matter of public concern, and that publishing it was meant to cause harm or caused psychological, financial or reputational harm. In cases involving minors, under 18, publishing with intent to abuse, humiliate, harass or degrade the minor, or to arouse or gratify sexual desire, is an offense. Consent to creating an image is not consent to publishing it, and sharing an image with one person is not consent to its publication by someone else.

Courts must also order the forfeiture of the material and of proceeds and property used in the offense, and restitution to the victim. The law exempts lawful law enforcement and intelligence work, good-faith disclosures such as to the police, in legal proceedings or for medical or educational purposes, disclosures meant to help the person depicted, and people sharing images of themselves.

What platforms must do

The second half of the law is aimed at platforms. A covered platform is a public website, online service or app that mainly provides a forum for user-generated content, such as messages, videos, images, games and audio files, or whose regular business includes publishing or hosting nonconsensual intimate images. Broadband providers and email are excluded, as are services that consist mainly of content the provider selects, where chat or comments are incidental.

• Set up a process through which the person depicted, or someone authorized to act for them, can report an image and ask for its removal. The request must be in writing, carry a physical or electronic signature, identify the image and where to find it, state a good-faith belief that it was published without consent, and give contact details.
• Explain that process on the platform in a clear and conspicuous notice, in plain language.
• Remove the image as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours after a valid request, and make reasonable efforts to find and remove known identical copies.

A platform that removes material in good faith is protected from claims over the removal, even if the image later proves not to be unlawful. A failure to reasonably comply with the notice-and-removal duties is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive practices, and the law extends the FTC's reach over these duties to nonprofit organizations.

What has happened since May 2026

The FTC began enforcing the platform rules on May 19, 2026, and launched TakeItDown.ftc.gov, where victims and survivors can complain about platforms that fail to act on valid removal requests. On May 11, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson had written to more than a dozen major platforms, among them Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok and X, to remind them of the deadline. On May 20, the agency sent warning letters to 12 companies offering so-called “nudify” tools, which digitally remove the clothing from a person's photo, saying they appeared to violate the law by giving victims no way to request removal.

The FTC's compliance guidance for businesses says covered platforms include social media, messaging, image or video sharing and gaming platforms, and that violations could bring civil penalties of $53,088 per violation. It advises platforms to give each takedown request an identifying number, so that the person, the platform and law enforcement can refer to the same image. A June 3, 2026, FTC notice in the Federal Register lists TakeItDown complaints among the records of its Consumer Information System.

For people whose images are posted without consent, there are two routes: a removal request to the platform, which then has 48 hours to act, and a complaint to the FTC if it does not. Publishing such images, or threatening to, is itself a federal crime under the Act.