If somebody has posted intimate photos or movies of you on-line, you now have stronger authorized instruments to compel platforms to take away them, no matter whether or not the media is genuine or an AI-generated deepfake.
Tuesday marks the beginning of full enforcement of the Take It Down Act, which legally requires on-line platforms — social media, messaging, and image-sharing or video-sharing apps — to implement processes for eradicating such materials in response to legitimate takedown requests.
Signed into regulation in 2025, the Take It Down Act was written in response to the elevated proliferation of AI-generated and digitally manipulated sexual photographs. The regulation, enforced by the Federal Commerce Fee, additionally applies to genuine nonconsensual intimate imagery shared on-line.
The FTC is not immediately chargeable for the content material removing. Affected people should first report the pictures to the platform administrator through the platform’s on-site instruments. The company will accumulate studies about platforms that don’t adjust to the regulation’s removing necessities, and should use these studies to assist enforcement.
The FTC allows people to report nonconsensual intimate imagery involving themselves or their youngsters. Studies might also be submitted on a sufferer’s behalf with their consent.
The company additionally recommends reporting such incidents to native regulation enforcement and the FBI’s online tipline when applicable.
FTC representatives pointed CNET to its press release and did not remark additional.
The right way to file a Take It Down request
If somebody has shared nonconsensual intimate photographs of you on-line, step one is to report the content material on to the platform utilizing its built-in moderation instruments.
On platforms like Instagram and X, you may normally faucet the three-dot menu on a put up to entry reporting choices and choose a class associated to nonconsensual or sexually specific imagery.
The FTC’s Take It Down Act has an internet site the place you may submit a report if platforms have not eliminated nonconsensual sexual imagery.
Each platform ought to have related reporting instruments. The brand new laws mandates that the platform should take away the pictures inside 48 hours of a legitimate report.
If a platform fails to behave on a report of nonconsensual intimate imagery, or if reporting instruments are unavailable or malfunctioning, victims can file a complaint with the FTC online. The company might use complaints to determine patterns of noncompliance and pursue enforcement actions towards platforms that fail to fulfill their authorized obligations. If a picture reappears on a platform, you may submit a brand new takedown request to the platform.
FTC outlines the steps to submit a report.
Sexually specific materials involving minors is handled as little one sexual abuse materials and is topic to stricter authorized necessities. It must also be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline. The FTC additionally encourages individuals who learn about current pornographic photographs of minors — whether or not they be photos of themselves, their youngsters or one other weak minor — to submit a request with the NCMEC’s personal Take It Down service.
If a platform would not take away nonconsensual intimate imagery, further instruments can be found. One possibility is StopNCII.org, a system run in partnership with the Revenge Porn Helpline that creates a digital fingerprint of a picture on the person’s system so taking part platforms can detect and block it from being uploaded once more.
