A 2025 law requires platforms to remove fake intimate images

The short answer

Since May 2025, federal law has made it a crime to publish an intimate image of someone without their consent, whether the image is real or an AI-generated fake, and has required platforms that host user content to remove such images within 48 hours of a valid request. For a young person targeted with a faked intimate image, this gives a specific legal path, a takedown deadline and a federal enforcement backstop, rather than relying only on a platform's own policy.

What the evidence says

S.146, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, became Public Law 119-12 on 19 May 2025, according to the bill's record. The enacted text amends the Communications Act to criminalise the intentional online publication of an intimate visual depiction of an identifiable adult where publication is intended to cause harm and was made without consent, or, for a minor, where publication is intended to abuse or harass the minor or to gratify anyone's sexual desire; it covers authentic images and digital forgeries, commonly called deepfakes, alike, and separately criminalises threatening to publish such images. The law also requires covered platforms, meaning public-facing services that primarily host user-generated content, to set up a clear process letting a depicted person submit a signed, good-faith notice identifying the image and requesting removal, and to remove it, plus reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies, within 48 hours of a valid request. A platform that removes material in good faith based on such a notice is protected from liability over that removal. Failure to reasonably comply with the notice-and-removal duty is treated as an unfair or deceptive practice under the FTC Act, giving the Commission enforcement authority, including over organisations not ordinarily within its jurisdiction.

For context

The criminal provisions and the removal duty are separate: a prosecution requires proving intent and lack of consent, while the 48-hour duty is triggered simply by a valid notice, regardless of whether anyone is charged. The law narrowly defines covered platforms, excluding email and broadband providers, so not every online space a young person uses is bound by the clock. As a recently enacted law, how enforcement and removal work in practice, including how quickly platforms build compliant tools, is not yet established by a record of enforcement actions.

A practical next step

If a young person you know is targeted with a nonconsensual or faked intimate image, it may help to know most major platforms now need a specific removal process, so ask directly for that notice-and-removal procedure rather than only using a general report button.

• Does the platform involved have a clearly published notice-and-removal process, separate from its general reporting tools?
• Would you know how to document a request, including identifying the image and stating it was published without consent, the way the law describes?
• Have you talked with a teenager in your life about what a deepfake image is and why threatening to publish one is itself against the law?

The Act gives platforms a concrete deadline and a federal enforcer, though its practical effect depends on removal processes still being built out.