America’s dangerous, messy deepfakes crackdown is here
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A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Policy PolicyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Policy AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Politics PoliticsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
FollowSee All PoliticsAmerica’s dangerous, messy deepfakes crackdown is hereThe Take It Down Act is in full force, but it could be a gift to government censors — not victims of image-based sexual abuse. The Take It Down Act is in full force, but it could be a gift to government censors — not victims of image-based sexual abuse. by Lauren Feiner Lauren FeinerSenior Policy ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Technical Details
FollowSee All by Lauren FeinerMay 19, 2026, 2:58 PM UTC Image: The Verge Lauren Feiner Lauren FeinerPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Lauren Feiner is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.
A law requiring social networks to quickly remove sexual deepfakes and other nonconsensual imagery is now fully in force. But experts warn the policy could do little to help victims — and at worst could facilitate censorship online. Last May, President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act, a law addressing nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII).
The law immediately criminalized distributing NCII, whether in the form of real or AI-generated material, something many states at least partially do already. But its namesake takedown provision is more sweeping. Taking effect a year after the law’s passage — on May 19th of 2026 — it requires online platforms to remove NCII within 48 hours or face fines.
Industry Implications
Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson sent letters to over a dozen tech companies ahead of the deadline, a list the FTC said included Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok and X. It instructed the platforms to offer users an easy takedown request process and remove offending content within 48 hours, as well as any “known identical copies. ” The agency, which is tasked with enforcing the law, reminded companies that violating it could result in civil penalties of more than $53,000 per violation.
Major platforms including Meta, Microsoft, Google, TikTok, and Snap supported the bill, and expressed confidence that they could comply. Snap said in a blog post last year that it “aligns with and complements our ongoing efforts. ” Spokesperson Monique Bellamy told The Verge that it’s continuing to “evolve” safety systems, “including investing in tools and technologies to proactively detect and take action on unwanted nudes and similar imagery.
This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.
