The FTC will begin enforcing the Take It Down Act on May 19, requiring platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery and AI-generated deepfakes within 48 hours of a victim’s notice — or pay $53,088 per violation.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson sent letters this week to Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and others, spelling out what compliance requires. Companies must make reporting accessible to victims who don’t have accounts and describe removal programs in “plain language”; they are also urged to implement hashing technology to block reposted content from reappearing. They must also give “clear and conspicuous” notice to users about how to request removals. The law covers websites, apps, social media, image and video sharing services, and gaming platforms.
The $53,088 figure is intentional. Privacy attorneys Duane Pozza and Ian Barlow called compliance “critical given the FTC’s emphasis on enforcement,” noting fines can stack quickly when a platform hosts multiple copies of the same flagged media.
That penalty structure also creates a perverse incentive. Becca Branum, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, warned the dynamic mirrors DMCA takedown patterns, where bad-faith actors exploit complaint systems to silence legal speech. She also questioned whether the FTC has the human and technical resources to fairly enforce a law that puts the commission in the business of regulating content moderation at scale. “I can’t imagine any service wanting to risk that type of fine on edge cases or anything they can’t verify or account for within 48 hours,” she told CyberScoop.
Enforcement begins May 19.
— James Okafor