President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act into law. The new legislation criminalizes the distribution of nonconsensual intimate images, including those created using AI.
Lawmakers passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support. Now, anyone who shares real or AI-generated explicit content without consent could face up to three years in prison.
The law also imposes strict rules on social media platforms. They must take down reported content within 48 hours and try to remove all copies.
What the Law Requires
The Take It Down Act introduces new legal responsibilities:
- Up to three years in prison for distributing nonconsensual intimate images (NCII)
- Applies to both real and AI-generated images
- Platforms must remove reported content within 48 hours
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will oversee enforcement
- Social platforms have one year to meet all requirements
Support and Warnings
Many groups praised the law: parent advocates, youth safety organizations, and even First Lady Melania Trump supported it.
They say the law offers long-overdue protection, especially for minors and women.
However, civil liberties groups raise important red flags. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a group that has long supported stronger protections against image-based abuse, declined to back the bill.
CCRI president Mary Anne Franks warned that the takedown rules could mislead victims. On Bluesky, she called the takedown rule a “poison pill.”
Franks explained, “Platforms that think they’re safe from FTC action might just ignore complaints. Others may be flooded with false reports. That could make it harder to find and remove real cases.”
Free Speech and Misuse
Groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) worry about unintended consequences.
They fear the law might stifle free speech by leading to broad content removal, pressure companies to weaken privacy tools like end-to-end encryption, and even allow politically biased enforcement.
These critics say platforms that use strong encryption can’t read messages, so they can’t remove harmful content even if they want to.
That could lead to legal penalties or force companies to change how encryption works.
Becca Branum, deputy director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, warned that the law is “vaguely written.”
Courts might struggle to decide when it goes too far. Legal challenges may only come after the FTC starts cracking down.
Trump’s Take: “I’m Going to Use That Bill for Myself”
During the signing ceremony, President Trump dismissed critics. “They talked about the First Amendment, Second Amendment, any amendment they could think of. And we still got it through,” he said.
Trump also claimed he planned to use the law personally. “Nobody gets treated worse than I do online,” he told Congress earlier this year.
That remark raised fresh fears: some now worry the law might be used to silence political opponents or journalists.
Will the Law Actually Help Survivors?
Some worry the law will raise expectations it can’t meet. Victims may think they now have an easy path to justice.
In reality, enforcement may be uneven, and some platforms might fail to comply. Franks noted that platforms might struggle to filter false and real reports. That could slow response times or discourage action altogether.
Next Steps
Social media companies now have one year to comply. That means building new tools and systems to detect and remove NCII quickly.
The FTC will have the power to investigate and penalize those who fail.
However, critics warn that the FTC under Trump may selectively enforce the law.
Earlier this year, the president fired the two Democratic commissioners at the FTC, breaking past norms.
