The TAKE IT DOWN Act: How to Get Nonconsensual Intimate Images and Deepfakes Removed (2026 Guide)

Quick Answer: If someone has posted intimate images or AI-generated deepfakes of you without your consent, you now have a federal legal tool to get them removed fast. Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, most online platforms are legally required to take down verified nonconsensual intimate images — including deepfakes — within 48 hours of a valid request. The law also makes posting this content a federal crime. As of May 2026, the FTC has begun actively enforcing this law against platforms that don't comply. This guide explains exactly how the process works, what qualifies, and what to do if a platform ignores your request.

What Is the TAKE IT DOWN Act?

The TAKE IT DOWN Act — formally the "Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act" — is a federal law signed on May 19, 2025. It does two distinct things:

1. Criminalizes the nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including AI-generated "digital forgeries" (deepfakes), in certain circumstances.
2. Requires covered platforms — social media sites, image/video hosting services, messaging apps, and similar services — to implement a notice-and-removal process so victims can request takedowns directly.

The criminal provisions took effect immediately upon signing. The platform notice-and-removal requirement had a one-year runway and became legally enforceable on May 19, 2026 — which means, as of this writing, the FTC is actively policing platform compliance right now.

What Content Is Covered

The law covers two categories:

• Authentic intimate images — real, non-AI photos or videos depicting private, identifiable body parts or sexual activity, shared without the depicted person's consent.
• Deepfakes and digital forgeries — AI-generated or digitally altered content that realistically depicts an identifiable person in an intimate or sexual context, even if the image is entirely fabricated.

Both categories apply whether the subject is an adult or a minor, though the criminal penalties are more severe when minors are involved.

What Counts as a "Covered Platform"

Not every website is covered. A platform generally qualifies if it primarily provides a forum for user-generated content, or if it publishes, curates, hosts, or makes such content available in the regular course of business. This sweeps in the platforms people actually think of first — social media, messaging apps, image/video-sharing sites, forums, and many adult content platforms — though the exact edges of the definition are still being tested.

How Fast Must Platforms Act?

Once a platform receives a request that meets the law's requirements, it must:

• Remove the reported content within 48 hours.
• Make reasonable efforts to identify and remove known identical copies (reposts, duplicates) of the same content.
• Provide a way for the requester to track or confirm the outcome of the request.

This 48-hour window is significantly faster than most standard platform reporting processes, which is exactly why it matters to invoke the law by name rather than relying on a platform's general "report content" button.

How to Actually Submit a Takedown Request

The process varies slightly by platform, but generally requires:

1. Locate the specific content. You'll need the exact URL or direct link to each instance of the image or video — not just the account or profile it's posted on.
2. Use the platform's TAKE IT DOWN Act–specific reporting form, not just a general abuse report. Most major platforms (Meta, Reddit, Google, PornHub, and others) now have a dedicated legal-request form separate from standard content moderation reports, because a TIDA request carries legal obligations the platform must document.
3. Provide required information, typically including a contact email, a signed statement asserting the content is nonconsensual, and your relationship to the person depicted (yourself, or someone you're formally representing).
4. Keep records. Save confirmation numbers, timestamps, and copies of your submission — this documentation is what you'd need if the platform fails to comply and you escalate to the FTC.

If a Platform Doesn't Comply

The FTC enforces the platform-side obligations of the law and has launched TakeItDown.ftc.gov, a dedicated website where people can file a complaint against a platform that either failed to act on a valid request or never built a compliant removal process at all. The FTC has stated it intends to enforce the law "vigorously" and has already sent warning letters to companies about their obligations. Separately, the Department of Justice has pursued criminal cases against individuals under the law's separate criminal provisions.

This Doesn't Replace State Law — It Adds to It

The TAKE IT DOWN Act does not preempt state law. As of 2026, all 50 states and DC have some form of law addressing image-based sexual abuse, though the specifics — what's covered, what the penalties are, and whether deepfakes are explicitly included — vary significantly by state. This means a victim often has more than one legal avenue available: the new federal takedown mechanism, a state criminal complaint, and in many cases a civil claim (invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or a state-specific image-based abuse statute) against the person who posted the content.

Other Resources Worth Knowing About

• StopNCII.org — a hashing-based tool that helps prevent adult nonconsensual intimate images from being posted or reposted across participating platforms, without requiring you to send the image itself anywhere.
• NCMEC's Take It Down service — a similar hashing tool specifically for content involving minors, run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (unaffiliated with the federal Act despite the shared name).
• DMCA takedown — if you're the copyright holder of the image (for example, a photo you took of yourself), a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice can be an additional, sometimes faster, tool alongside a TIDA request.

Sources: Congressional Research Service, The TAKE IT DOWN Act: A Federal Law Prohibiting the Nonconsensual Publication of Intimate Images · Federal Trade Commission, FTC Begins Enforcing the TAKE IT DOWN Act · Federal Trade Commission, Complying With the Take It Down Act · Covington & Burling, The TAKE IT DOWN Act's Notice and Removal Requirements Enter Into Effect · Skadden, 'Take It Down Act' Requires Online Platforms To Remove Unauthorized Intimate Images and Deepfakes When Notified · C.A. Goldberg Law, Everything You Need to Know About The TAKE IT DOWN Act · The 19th News, Take It Down Act: How to use it to remove revenge porn in 2026