The Take It Down Act is now law. Social media platforms must remove deepfake porn within 48 hours of notification.
How the Deadline Works
Platforms have exactly two days after receiving an official report to take down deepfake porn. No exceptions. The clock starts ticking the moment they acknowledge the content exists. This isn’t optional—it’s a hard deadline set by federal law. Companies can’t delay for internal reviews or verification processes. What matters is the timestamp of the report. If it lands at 3:15 PM Tuesday, the material must be gone by 3:15 PM Thursday. The law doesn’t specify penalties for missing the window. But breaking it means risking legal liability.
What Counts as Deepfake Porn
The law targets synthetic sexual content made using artificial intelligence. It shows real people in fake intimate scenarios without their consent. These aren’t edited photos. They’re AI-generated videos or images that look startlingly real. The material spreads rapidly across platforms. Victims often don’t know it exists until it’s circulating widely. The Take It Down Act focuses solely on this specific type of non-consensual imagery. It doesn’t cover text-based harassment or other forms of online abuse.
Platform Compliance Steps
Platforms now need clear internal systems for handling reports. They must assign staff to monitor takedown requests around the clock. Any verified report triggers the 48-hour countdown. The process requires precise record-keeping to prove timely removal if challenged later. Smaller platforms might struggle with resource constraints. But the law applies uniformly across all social media companies operating in the U.S. There’s no size threshold or exemption for new services.
Every deepfake porn report now starts a race against the clock. Platforms must act or face consequences.
