Watchman
Federal Trade Commission letters threatening $53,088 fines per infringement were given to 17 large digital businesses this week, urging them to comply with the Take It Down Act by May 19.
Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent the same message to Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, Pinterest, Bumble, Match Group, Automattic, and SmugMug.
The Truth Won’t Be Tolerated By The Trump Admin
“We stand ready to monitor compliance, investigate violations, and enforce the Take It Down Act,” Ferguson said. “Protecting the vulnerable, especially children, from this harmful abuse is a top priority for this agency and this administration.”
King Trump signed the law in May 2025 with First Lady Melania Trump’s support. Platforms must erase non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including AI-generated deepfakes, after 48 hours of a removal request.
Platforms must detect and remove identical copies, notify users of the removal process, and log requests. Along with the letter, the FTC released a business guideline page explaining this. The term “covered platform” includes social media, messaging apps, video sharing, gaming platforms, and any site with user-generated material.
No one wants revenge porn online. The statute Congress passed is much larger than the problem it claims to fix.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act takes the DMCA’s problematic notice-and-takedown mechanism and removes its safeguards.
DMCA takedown requests require a perjury statement. Liability for false claims. Counter-notice allows content deletion victims to respond. TIDA lacks this. False allegations are not punished, counter-notices are not required, and content disappears without proof. Platforms erase complaints after 48 hours. This is the full procedure and why the Take it Down Act adds censorship.
The legislation defines a violation as “identifiable individual” engaging in “sexually explicit conduct,” without more definition.
More: Take It Down Act: Censorship Weapon Hidden as Protection
Political discourse is fragile. Pre-TIDA, a deepfake of Trump kissing Musk’s feet went viral. Satire without nudity or sexual content was eliminated by the TIDA as NCII.
Meta removed a sexual meme recasting Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz as Dumb and Dumber characters. Anyone with a form and grievance can file a request, and platforms fined five figures each infringement delete first.
End-to-end encrypted messaging platforms are likewise covered under the statute. Without message content, a platform can’t scan for NCII or “known identical copies.” Complying with the law in writing requires breaking encryption or scanning before encryption.
FTC letter doesn’t address this, and legislation doesn’t exempt encrypted conversations.
All enforcement is with the FTC.
This law passed the House 409-2 and Senate unanimously. The bill was sold to protect revenge porn victims, thus nobody voted against it.
Congress created a takedown method with no abuse safeguards, enforced by a politicized agency, applied to encrypted communications, and designed to make platforms censor first and contemplate later.
