WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an overwhelming 409-2 vote (with 22 members not voting), the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday passed the “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks” (“TAKE IT DOWN”) Act, a bill requiring covered platforms to “remove nonconsensual intimate visual depictions” or face criminal sanctions.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the Act into law, having signaled his support for it when the U.S. Senate passed its version of the bill in March. The legislation has broad bipartisan support and has been endorsed by First Lady Melania Trump, who hailed the bill’s passage as “a powerful statement that we stand united in protecting the dignity, privacy, and safety of our children.”
Under the Act, it is criminal offense to knowingly publish authentic or synthetic “nonconsensual intimate imagery” (NCII) without consent of those depicted. The law provides a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment for publishing NCII depicting an adult and up to three years’ imprisonment if the NCII depicts a minor under the age of 18. Threats to publish authentic NCII are punishable with the same prison term as actual publication, while threats to publish synthetic NCII carry reduced sentences compared to actual publication, with 18 months for threats targeting adults and 30 months for those targeting minors.
TAKE IT DOWN also imposes civil takedown obligations for covered platforms. Under the Act, covered platforms include websites, apps and online services that “primarily provides a forum for user-generated content, including messages, videos, images, games, and audio files or for which it is in the regular course of trade or business of the website, online service, online application, or mobile application to publish, curate, host, or… make available content of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions.” Email services and providers of “broadband internet access service(s)” are excluded from the definition of covered platforms.
The Act requires covered platforms “upon receiving a valid removal request from an identifiable individual (or an authorized person acting on behalf of such individual)” to “as soon as possible, but not later than 48 hours after receiving such request… remove the intimate visual depiction and make reasonable efforts to identify and remove any known identical copies of such depiction.”
The Act also makes clear that consent to create an image does not also represent consent to distribute the image and that prior private sharing of an image does not negate the depicted person’s right to privacy or equate to share the image publicly.
Within one year of the Act’s enactment, covered platforms must “establish a process whereby an identifiable individual (or an authorized person acting on behalf of such individual) may notify the covered platform of an intimate visual depiction published on the covered platform that ) includes a depiction of the identifiable individual; and was published without the consent of the identifiable individual; and submit a request for the covered platform to remove such intimate visual depiction.”
The Act also defines how an “identifiable individual” or authorized person acting on their behalf must go about providing notifications to covered platforms. Under the Act, such notifications must include “in writing “a physical or electronic signature of the identifiable individual (or an authorized person acting on behalf of such individual); an identification of, and information reasonably sufficient for the covered platform to locate, the intimate visual depiction of the identifiable individual; a brief statement that the identifiable individual has a good faith belief that any intimate visual depiction identified under clause (ii) is not consensual, including any relevant information for the covered platform to determine the intimate visual depiction was published without the consent of the identifiable individual; and information sufficient to enable the covered platform to contact the identifiable individual” or their authorized representative.
