The New TAKE IT DOWN Act

The new TAKE IT DOWN Act, which is an acronym for “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act” (the “Act”), was signed into law on May 19th.  The Act fills a need to allow victims of sexual exploitation or extortion, or victims of stalking or harassment to force websites to remove offending images.

The Act was a part of a bipartisan effort in the Senate, with sponsors such as Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota.  The bill later passed the House with a vote of 409-2.  The law applies to non-consensual intimate images (“NCII”) or AI-generated images that are intended to represent real people.  The Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly publish, or even to threaten to publish, NCII online without the image subject’s consent. 

The law applies to “covered platforms,” which are defined as a “website, online service, online application, or mobile application” that has a public-facing website.  The Act was not intended to reach private material such as closed chat sessions, encrypted platforms, or email.  So while online sites such as Facebook, X, Instagram, and public sites would be subject to the law, applications such as WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and other closed platforms would not be subject to the law.

Covered platforms must create a process for victims of NCII (or someone authorized to act on their behalf) to be able to notify the platform about the existence of such material.  Covered platforms have one year from the date of the act to establish and publish their processes for victims.

Once such images are identified, the law provides:

• • The person who is the subject of the image can notify the platform of the offending image;
  • Upon receipt of a valid notice, the platform must remove the image within 48 hours; and
  • The platform must also make a reasonable effort to identify and remove any known identical copies.

The penalties for the individuals who publish the images can range from potential imprisonment of up to two years for adult victims and up to three years for crimes against minors.

The full text of the act can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/146/text