Social media will be a porn hub no longer.
The Take It Down Act went into full effect on Tuesday, meaning that social media platforms are now required to remove revenge porn and other non-consensual explicit images within two days — or face a hefty fine.
This policy will ensure that tech giants “can no longer turn a blind eye to these horrifying abuses on social media,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who penned the bill in collaboration with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said in a statement, CNN reported.
Originally signed into law last May by President Donald Trump, the sweeping measure criminalized sharing both real and AI-generated deepfake porn or other sexually explicit material online without the person’s consent.
Online platforms were given a full year to create a process for removing said depictions within 48 hours of being alerted by users. Now, failing to comply can result in said sites having to pay up to $53,088 per violation.
This bipartisan provision is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had sent letters to a dozen tech firms ahead of the deadline. They included Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, X, Reddit, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft, although the law applies to any firm that “primarily provides a forum for user-generated content or regularly publishes, curates, hosts, or furnishes intimate content shared without consent.”
Individuals were already subject to the Take It Down provision, which stipulates that violators can be hit with fines and up to a two-year prison sentence.
Before the law, victims had limited options for combating deepfake porn, which has run rampant across social media. In 2024, X temporarily banned searches for Taylor Swift after X-rated deepfake images of the pop star proliferated on the platform and other sites, The Verge reported.
Meanwhile, the Take It Down act was inspired by a case in which a teen used AI to generate sexually-explicit photos of a Texas high schooler, before disseminating the X-rated images on Snapchat. Oftentimes, the acts are used to exploit or exact revenge on a target.
Snapchat pledged its compliance with the act in a blog post last year, declaring that it “aligns with and complements our ongoing efforts.”
Meanwhile, Meta’s head of women’s safety, Cindy Southworth, said the firm continues to “support the TAKE IT DOWN Act, an important step in addressing this abuse across the internet, and we’ve already been compliant for several months.”
According to the FTC, online platforms must offer clear instructions to “make it easy for people to submit a removal request” — which many sites already have in place.
For instance, Instagram displays three dots on each image’s upper right-hand corner. Clicking them pulls up “Report” button, which leads users to a link where they can fill out a detailed report.
Meanwhile, TikTok users can flag deepfake violations by clicking the arrow button on the lower right side of the screen and going to “Sexual content,” which will take them to a link to submit a report for explicit images.
Social media sites that neglect to remove the intimate imagery — or make it difficult to report — can be reported via TakeItDown.ftc.gov.
“Victims now have the tools needed to reclaim their privacy and dignity, and Big Tech can no longer look the other way,” Cruz said in a statement.
