119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 146
AN ACT
To require covered platforms to remove nonconsensual
intimate visual depictions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
†S 146 ES
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tools to Address 2
Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological 3
Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act’’ or the ‘‘TAKE 4
IT DOWN Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. CRIMINAL PROHIBITION ON INTENTIONAL DISCLO-6
SURE OF NONCONSENSUAL INTIMATE VISUAL 7
DEPICTIONS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 223 of the Communica-9
tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 223) is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating subsection (h) as sub-11
section (i); and 12
(2) by inserting after subsection (g) the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘(h) I
NTENTIONALDISCLOSURE OF NONCONSEN-15
SUALINTIMATEVISUALDEPICTIONS.— 16
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 17
‘‘(A) C
ONSENT.—The term ‘consent’ 18
means an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary 19
authorization made by an individual free from 20
force, fraud, duress, misrepresentation, or coer-21
cion. 22
‘‘(B) D
IGITAL FORGERY.—The term ‘dig-23
ital forgery’ means any intimate visual depic-24
tion of an identifiable individual created 25
through the use of software, machine learning, 26 3
†S 146 ES
artificial intelligence, or any other computer- 1
generated or technological means, including by 2
adapting, modifying, manipulating, or altering 3
an authentic visual depiction, that, when viewed 4
as a whole by a reasonable person, is indistin-5
guishable from an authentic visual depiction of 6
the individual. 7
‘‘(C) I
DENTIFIABLE INDIVIDUAL .—The 8
term ‘identifiable individual’ means an indi-9
vidual— 10
‘‘(i) who appears in whole or in part 11
in an intimate visual depiction; and 12
‘‘(ii) whose face, likeness, or other dis-13
tinguishing characteristic (including a 14
unique birthmark or other recognizable 15
feature) is displayed in connection with 16
such intimate visual depiction. 17
‘‘(D) I
NTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE .— 18
The term ‘interactive computer service’ has the 19
meaning given the term in section 230. 20
‘‘(E) I
NTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTION .—The 21
term ‘intimate visual depiction’ has the mean-22
ing given such term in section 1309 of the Con-23
solidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (15 U.S.C. 24
6851). 25 4
†S 146 ES
‘‘(F) MINOR.—The term ‘minor’ means 1
any individual under the age of 18 years. 2
‘‘(2) O
FFENSE INVOLVING AUTHENTIC INTI -3
MATE VISUAL DEPICTIONS .— 4
‘‘(A) I
NVOLVING ADULTS.—Except as pro-5
vided in subparagraph (C), it shall be unlawful 6
for any person, in interstate or foreign com-7
merce, to use an interactive computer service to 8
knowingly publish an intimate visual depiction 9
of an identifiable individual who is not a minor 10
if— 11
‘‘(i) the intimate visual depiction was 12
obtained or created under circumstances in 13
which the person knew or reasonably 14
should have known the identifiable indi-15
vidual had a reasonable expectation of pri-16
vacy; 17
‘‘(ii) what is depicted was not volun-18
tarily exposed by the identifiable individual 19
in a public or commercial setting; 20
‘‘(iii) what is depicted is not a matter 21
of public concern; and 22
‘‘(iv) publication of the intimate visual 23
depiction— 24 5
†S 146 ES
‘‘(I) is intended to cause harm; 1
or 2
‘‘(II) causes harm, including psy-3
chological, financial, or reputational 4
harm, to the identifiable individual. 5
‘‘(B) I
NVOLVING MINORS.—Except as pro-6
vided in subparagraph (C), it shall be unlawful 7
for any person, in interstate or foreign com-8
merce, to use an interactive computer service to 9
knowingly publish an intimate visual depiction 10
of an identifiable individual who is a minor with 11
intent to— 12
‘‘(i) abuse, humiliate, harass, or de-13
grade the minor; or 14
‘‘(ii) arouse or gratify the sexual de-15
sire of any person. 16
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.—Subparagraphs (A) 17
and (B) shall not apply to— 18
‘‘(i) a lawfully authorized investiga-19
tive, protective, or intelligence activity of— 20
‘‘(I) a law enforcement agency of 21
the United States, a State, or a polit-22
ical subdivision of a State; or 23
‘‘(II) an intelligence agency of 24
the United States; 25 6
†S 146 ES
‘‘(ii) a disclosure made reasonably and 1
in good faith— 2
‘‘(I) to a law enforcement officer 3
or agency; 4
‘‘(II) as part of a document pro-5
duction or filing associated with a 6
legal proceeding; 7
‘‘(III) as part of medical edu-8
cation, diagnosis, or treatment or for 9
a legitimate medical, scientific, or 10
education purpose; 11
‘‘(IV) in the reporting of unlaw-12
ful content or unsolicited or unwel-13
come conduct or in pursuance of a 14
legal, professional, or other lawful ob-15
ligation; or 16
‘‘(V) to seek support or help with 17
respect to the receipt of an unsolicited 18
intimate visual depiction; 19
‘‘(iii) a disclosure reasonably intended 20
to assist the identifiable individual; 21
‘‘(iv) a person who possesses or pub-22
lishes an intimate visual depiction of him-23
self or herself engaged in nudity or sexu-24
ally explicit conduct (as that term is de-25 7
†S 146 ES
fined in section 2256(2)(A) of title 18, 1
United States Code); or 2
‘‘(v) the publication of an intimate 3
visual depiction that constitutes— 4
‘‘(I) child pornography (as that 5
term is defined in section 2256 of title 6
18, United States Code); or 7
‘‘(II) a visual depiction described 8
in subsection (a) or (b) of section 9
1466A of title 18, United States Code 10
(relating to obscene visual representa-11
tions of the sexual abuse of children). 12
‘‘(3) O
FFENSE INVOLVING DIGITAL FOR -13
GERIES.— 14
‘‘(A) I
NVOLVING ADULTS.—Except as pro-15
vided in subparagraph (C), it shall be unlawful 16
for any person, in interstate or foreign com-17
merce, to use an interactive computer service to 18
knowingly publish a digital forgery of an identi-19
fiable individual who is not a minor if— 20
‘‘(i) the digital forgery was published 21
without the consent of the identifiable indi-22
vidual; 23 8
†S 146 ES
‘‘(ii) what is depicted was not volun-1
tarily exposed by the identifiable individual 2
in a public or commercial setting; 3
‘‘(iii) what is depicted is not a matter 4
of public concern; and 5
‘‘(iv) publication of the digital for-6
gery— 7
‘‘(I) is intended to cause harm; 8
or 9
‘‘(II) causes harm, including psy-10
chological, financial, or reputational 11
harm, to the identifiable individual. 12
‘‘(B) I
NVOLVING MINORS.—Except as pro-13
vided in subparagraph (C), it shall be unlawful 14
for any person, in interstate or foreign com-15
merce, to use an interactive computer service to 16
knowingly publish a digital forgery of an identi-17
fiable individual who is a minor with intent 18
to— 19
‘‘(i) abuse, humiliate, harass, or de-20
grade the minor; or 21
‘‘(ii) arouse or gratify the sexual de-22
sire of any person. 23
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTIONS.—Subparagraphs (A) 24
and (B) shall not apply to— 25 9
†S 146 ES
‘‘(i) a lawfully authorized investiga-1
tive, protective, or intelligence activity of— 2
‘‘(I) a law enforcement agency of 3
the United States, a State, or a polit-4
ical subdivision of a State; or 5
‘‘(II) an intelligence agency of 6
the United States; 7
‘‘(ii) a disclosure made reasonably and 8
in good faith— 9
‘‘(I) to a law enforcement officer 10
or agency; 11
‘‘(II) as part of a document pro-12
duction or filing associated with a 13
legal proceeding; 14
‘‘(III) as part of medical edu-15
cation, diagnosis, or treatment or for 16
a legitimate medical, scientific, or 17
education purpose; 18
‘‘(IV) in the reporting of unlaw-19
ful content or unsolicited or unwel-20
come conduct or in pursuance of a 21
legal, professional, or other lawful ob-22
ligation; or 23 10
†S 146 ES
‘‘(V) to seek support or help with 1
respect to the receipt of an unsolicited 2
intimate visual depiction; 3
‘‘(iii) a disclosure reasonably intended 4
to assist the identifiable individual; 5
‘‘(iv) a person who possesses or pub-6
lishes a digital forgery of himself or herself 7
engaged in nudity or sexually explicit con-8
duct (as that term is defined in section 9
2256(2)(A) of title 18, United States 10
Code); or 11
‘‘(v) the publication of an intimate 12
visual depiction that constitutes— 13
‘‘(I) child pornography (as that 14
term is defined in section 2256 of title 15
18, United States Code); or 16
‘‘(II) a visual depiction described 17
in subsection (a) or (b) of section 18
1466A of title 18, United States Code 19
(relating to obscene visual representa-20
tions of the sexual abuse of children). 21
‘‘(4) P
ENALTIES.— 22
‘‘(A) O
FFENSES INVOLVING ADULTS .—Any 23
person who violates paragraph (2)(A) or (3)(A) 24
shall be fined under title 18, United States 25 11
†S 146 ES
Code, imprisoned not more than 2 years, or 1
both. 2
‘‘(B) O
FFENSES INVOLVING MINORS .—Any 3
person who violates paragraph (2)(B) or (3)(B) 4
shall be fined under title 18, United States 5
Code, imprisoned not more than 3 years, or 6
both. 7
‘‘(5) R
ULES OF CONSTRUCTION .—For purposes 8
of paragraphs (2) and (3)— 9
‘‘(A) the fact that the identifiable indi-10
vidual provided consent for the creation of the 11
intimate visual depiction shall not establish that 12
the individual provided consent for the publica-13
tion of the intimate visual depiction; and 14
‘‘(B) the fact that the identifiable indi-15
vidual disclosed the intimate visual depiction to 16
another individual shall not establish that the 17
identifiable individual provided consent for the 18
publication of the intimate visual depiction by 19
the person alleged to have violated paragraph 20
(2) or (3), respectively. 21
‘‘(6) T
HREATS.— 22
‘‘(A) T
HREATS INVOLVING AUTHENTIC IN -23
TIMATE VISUAL DEPICTIONS .—Any person who 24
intentionally threatens to commit an offense 25 12
†S 146 ES
under paragraph (2) for the purpose of intimi-1
dation, coercion, extortion, or to create mental 2
distress shall be punished as provided in para-3
graph (4). 4
‘‘(B) T
HREATS INVOLVING DIGITAL FOR -5
GERIES.— 6
‘‘(i) T
HREATS INVOLVING ADULTS .— 7
Any person who intentionally threatens to 8
commit an offense under paragraph (3)(A) 9
for the purpose of intimidation, coercion, 10
extortion, or to create mental distress shall 11
be fined under title 18, United States 12
Code, imprisoned not more than 18 13
months, or both. 14
‘‘(ii) T
HREATS INVOLVING MINORS .— 15
Any person who intentionally threatens to 16
commit an offense under paragraph (3)(B) 17
for the purpose of intimidation, coercion, 18
extortion, or to create mental distress shall 19
be fined under title 18, United States 20
Code, imprisoned not more than 30 21
months, or both. 22
‘‘(7) F
ORFEITURE.— 23
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The court, in impos-24
ing a sentence on any person convicted of a vio-25 13
†S 146 ES
lation of paragraph (2) or (3), shall order, in 1
addition to any other sentence imposed and ir-2
respective of any provision of State law, that 3
the person forfeit to the United States— 4
‘‘(i) any material distributed in viola-5
tion of that paragraph; 6
‘‘(ii) the person’s interest in property, 7
real or personal, constituting or derived 8
from any gross proceeds of the violation, or 9
any property traceable to such property, 10
obtained or retained directly or indirectly 11
as a result of the violation; and 12
‘‘(iii) any personal property of the 13
person used, or intended to be used, in any 14
manner or part, to commit or to facilitate 15
the commission of the violation. 16
‘‘(B) P
ROCEDURES.—Section 413 of the 17
Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 853), 18
with the exception of subsections (a) and (d), 19
shall apply to the criminal forfeiture of property 20
under subparagraph (A). 21
‘‘(8) R
ESTITUTION.—The court shall order res-22
titution for an offense under paragraph (2) or (3) in 23
the same manner as under section 2264 of title 18, 24
United States Code. 25 14
†S 146 ES
‘‘(9) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 1
this subsection shall be construed to limit the appli-2
cation of any other relevant law, including section 3
2252 of title 18, United States Code.’’. 4
(b) D
EFENSES.—Section 223(e)(1) of the Commu-5
nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 223(e)(1)) is amended 6
by striking ‘‘or (d)’’ and inserting ‘‘, (d), or (h)’’. 7
(c) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 8
Subsection (i) of section 223 of the Communications Act 9
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 223), as so redesignated by subsection 10
(a), is amended by inserting ‘‘D
EFINITIONS.—’’ before 11
‘‘For purposes of this section’’. 12
SEC. 3. NOTICE AND REMOVAL OF NONCONSENSUAL INTI-13
MATE VISUAL DEPICTIONS. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 15
(1) N
OTICE AND REMOVAL PROCESS .— 16
(A) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 17
year after the date of enactment of this Act, a 18
covered platform shall establish a process 19
whereby an identifiable individual (or an au-20
thorized person acting on behalf of such indi-21
vidual) may— 22
(i) notify the covered platform of an 23
intimate visual depiction published on the 24
covered platform that— 25 15
†S 146 ES
(I) includes a depiction of the 1
identifiable individual; and 2
(II) was published without the 3
consent of the identifiable individual; 4
and 5
(ii) submit a request for the covered 6
platform to remove such intimate visual 7
depiction. 8
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—A notification and 9
request for removal of an intimate visual depic-10
tion submitted under the process established 11
under subparagraph (A) shall include, in writ-12
ing— 13
(i) a physical or electronic signature 14
of the identifiable individual (or an author-15
ized person acting on behalf of such indi-16
vidual); 17
(ii) an identification of, and informa-18
tion reasonably sufficient for the covered 19
platform to locate, the intimate visual de-20
piction of the identifiable individual; 21
(iii) a brief statement that the identi-22
fiable individual has a good faith belief 23
that any intimate visual depiction identi-24
fied under clause (ii) is not consensual, in-25 16
†S 146 ES
cluding any relevant information for the 1
covered platform to determine the intimate 2
visual depiction was published without the 3
consent of the identifiable individual; and 4
(iv) information sufficient to enable 5
the covered platform to contact the identi-6
fiable individual (or an authorized person 7
acting on behalf of such individual). 8
(2) N
OTICE OF PROCESS.—A covered platform 9
shall provide on the platform a clear and con-10
spicuous notice, which may be provided through a 11
clear and conspicuous link to another web page or 12
disclosure, of the notice and removal process estab-13
lished under paragraph (1)(A) that— 14
(A) is easy to read and in plain language; 15
and 16
(B) provides information regarding the re-17
sponsibilities of the covered platform under this 18
section, including a description of how an indi-19
vidual can submit a notification and request for 20
removal. 21
(3) R
EMOVAL OF NONCONSENSUAL INTIMATE 22
VISUAL DEPICTIONS.—Upon receiving a valid re-23
moval request from an identifiable individual (or an 24
authorized person acting on behalf of such indi-25 17
†S 146 ES
vidual) using the process described in paragraph 1
(1)(A)(ii), a covered platform shall, as soon as pos-2
sible, but not later than 48 hours after receiving 3
such request— 4
(A) remove the intimate visual depiction; 5
and 6
(B) make reasonable efforts to identify and 7
remove any known identical copies of such de-8
piction. 9
(4) L
IMITATION ON LIABILITY.—A covered plat-10
form shall not be liable for any claim based on the 11
covered platform’s good faith disabling of access to, 12
or removal of, material claimed to be a nonconsen-13
sual intimate visual depiction based on facts or cir-14
cumstances from which the unlawful publishing of 15
an intimate visual depiction is apparent, regardless 16
of whether the intimate visual depiction is ultimately 17
determined to be unlawful or not. 18
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION.— 19
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -20
TICES.—A failure to reasonably comply with the no-21
tice and takedown obligations under subsection (a) 22
shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an 23
unfair or a deceptive act or practice under section 24 18
†S 146 ES
18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act 1
(15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)). 2
(2) P
OWERS OF THE COMMISSION .— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 4
subparagraph (D), the Commission shall en-5
force this section in the same manner, by the 6
same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 7
powers, and duties as though all applicable 8
terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 9
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were in-10
corporated into and made a part of this section. 11
(B) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .—Any 12
person who violates this section shall be subject 13
to the penalties and entitled to the privileges 14
and immunities provided in the Federal Trade 15
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 16
(C) A
UTHORITY PRESERVED .—Nothing in 17
this Act shall be construed to limit the author-18
ity of the Federal Trade Commission under any 19
other provision of law. 20
(D) S
COPE OF JURISDICTION .—Notwith-21
standing sections 4, 5(a)(2), or 6 of the Federal 22
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 44, 45(a)(2), 23
46), or any jurisdictional limitation of the Com-24
mission, the Commission shall also enforce this 25 19
†S 146 ES
section in the same manner provided in sub-1
paragraph (A), with respect to organizations 2
that are not organized to carry on business for 3
their own profit or that of their members. 4
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 5
In this Act: 6
(1) C
OMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 7
means the Federal Trade Commission. 8
(2) C
ONSENT; DIGITAL FORGERY; IDENTIFI-9
ABLE INDIVIDUAL; INTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTION .— 10
The terms ‘‘consent’’, ‘‘digital forgery’’, ‘‘identifiable 11
individual’’, ‘‘intimate visual depiction’’, and 12
‘‘minor’’ have the meaning given such terms in sec-13
tion 223(h) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 14
U.S.C. 223), as added by section 2. 15
(3) C
OVERED PLATFORM .— 16
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered 17
platform’’ means a website, online service, on-18
line application, or mobile application— 19
(i) that serves the public; and 20
(ii)(I) that primarily provides a forum 21
for user-generated content, including mes-22
sages, videos, images, games, and audio 23
files; or 24 20
†S 146 ES
(II) for which it is in the regular 1
course of trade or business of the website, 2
online service, online application, or mobile 3
application to publish, curate, host, or 4
make available content of nonconsensual 5
intimate visual depictions. 6
(B) E
XCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘covered 7
platform’’ shall not include the following: 8
(i) A provider of broadband internet 9
access service (as described in section 10
8.1(b) of title 47, Code of Federal Regula-11
tions, or successor regulation). 12
(ii) Electronic mail. 13
(iii) Except as provided in subpara-14
graph (A)(ii)(II), an online service, appli-15
cation, or website— 16
(I) that consists primarily of con-17
tent that is not user generated but is 18
preselected by the provider of such on-19
line service, application, or website; 20
and 21
(II) for which any chat, com-22
ment, or interactive functionality is 23
incidental to, directly related to, or 24 21
†S 146 ES
dependent on the provision of the con-1
tent described in subclause (I). 2
SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY. 3
If any provision of this Act, or an amendment made 4
by this Act, is determined to be unenforceable or invalid, 5
the remaining provisions of this Act and the amendments 6
made by this Act shall not be affected. 7
Passed the Senate February 13, 2025.
Attest:
Secretary. 119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
S. 146
AN ACT
To require covered platforms to remove nonconsen-
sual intimate visual depictions, and for other
purposes.