Federal Revenge Porn Law: Take It Down Act and 48-Hour Removal

September 15, 2026

Federal revenge porn law now runs through the Take It Down Act, signed on May 19, 2025, which for the first time makes it a federal crime to share someone’s intimate images online without consent. Penalties reach two years in prison when an adult is depicted and three years when a minor is depicted. Prosecutors can also stack older federal charges (stalking, wire fraud, computer fraud) that carry far longer sentences, and victims have a separate right to sue in federal court for $150,000 in statutory damages.

What the Take It Down Act Makes a Crime

The Act amended the Communications Act of 1934 to directly target nonconsensual intimate image publication.¹ For images of adults, it is illegal to knowingly publish an intimate image online when the person had a reasonable expectation of privacy, the content wasn’t voluntarily exposed in a public or commercial setting, it isn’t a matter of public concern, and the publication either was intended to cause harm or actually caused harm (psychological, financial, or reputational).²

Threatening to publish counts as a separate crime even if nothing is ever posted. And agreeing to be photographed is not the same as agreeing to have the photo shared. The statute defines consent as an affirmative, voluntary authorization free from force, fraud, or coercion, and treats creation and distribution as separate acts requiring separate consent.²

AI-Generated Images Are Covered

The law reaches “digital forgeries” as well as real photos. A digital forgery is any intimate depiction of a real, identifiable person created through software, artificial intelligence, or other computer-generated means that a reasonable person couldn’t tell from a genuine image.² Someone who uses an AI tool to fabricate a realistic nude of a specific person and posts it faces the same criminal exposure as someone who shares a real photograph.

Prison Terms Under the Act

Publishing an adult’s images: up to 2 years in federal prison and a fine.
Publishing a minor’s images: up to 3 years in federal prison and a fine.
Threatening to publish an adult’s images: up to 18 months and a fine.
Threatening to publish a minor’s images: up to 30 months and a fine.

The 48-Hour Platform Removal Rule

The Act also puts obligations on the platforms. Once a covered site or app receives a valid written notice from a victim, it must take the image down within 48 hours and make reasonable efforts to find and remove identical copies.³ Platforms had until May 19, 2026 to have their removal procedures in place, and the Federal Trade Commission enforces compliance.⁴

Federal criminal law is expressly excluded from Section 230 immunity, so platforms cannot rely on the usual “we only host third-party content” defense to escape liability under the statute.³

Other Federal Charges That Often Get Stacked

The Take It Down Act closed the biggest gap, but the older statutes haven’t gone away. When the facts fit, they get charged too, and they usually carry heavier sentences.

Interstate Stalking

If the image sharing is part of an ongoing harassment campaign, prosecutors can charge federal stalking under 18 U.S.C. 2261A, which reaches electronic conduct intended to harass, intimidate, or cause serious emotional distress.⁵ The baseline maximum is 5 years and a fine of up to $250,000, rising to 10 years if the victim suffers serious bodily injury and up to life if a death results.⁶

Wire Fraud and Sextortion

When someone threatens to release intimate images to extract money, the standard charge is wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1343.⁷ Each count carries up to 20 years, and because each separate communication can count on its own, sextortion defendants often face stacked charges with very large cumulative exposure.⁸

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

If the images were obtained by breaking into a phone, cloud account, or computer, prosecutors add the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. 1030, which covers unauthorized access to protected computers.⁹

When the Person Depicted Is a Minor

Cases involving anyone under 18 shift into federal child exploitation law, where the penalties are among the longest in the federal code.

Producing sexually explicit images of a minor violates 18 U.S.C. 2251, which carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years for a first offense, rising to 25 to 50 years for a second offense and 35 years to life with two or more priors.¹⁰ Distribution falls under 18 U.S.C. 2252A, with a 5-year mandatory minimum and a 20-year maximum for a first offense; prior offenders face 15 to 40 years.¹¹ These penalties apply whether or not the minor initially agreed to be photographed.

Restitution is mandatory in every child exploitation case, and the court cannot waive it based on the defendant’s finances. It covers the victim’s full losses, including therapy, lost income, and attorney’s fees, with a $3,000 minimum in distribution cases.¹² A conviction under 2251 or 2252A also triggers mandatory sex offender registration under SORNA, which for the most serious offenses is a lifetime obligation.¹³ A Take It Down Act conviction involving only an adult victim does not automatically trigger federal SORNA registration, though state registration rules may apply on their own.

Suing in Federal Court for $150,000

Victims don’t have to wait for a prosecutor. Under 15 U.S.C. 6851, added by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022, a person whose intimate images are disclosed without consent can file a civil suit in federal court. The plaintiff has to show the disclosure was in or affecting interstate commerce, was made without consent, and that the defendant knew of or recklessly disregarded the lack of consent.¹⁴

A successful plaintiff can recover actual financial losses or elect statutory damages of $150,000, plus attorney’s fees and court costs.¹⁵ The statutory option matters because emotional and reputational harm is hard to convert into an exact dollar figure. Parents, guardians, or estate representatives can file on behalf of a minor, an incapacitated person, or a deceased victim.

The statute has limits. There is no civil claim for commercial pornographic content that was voluntarily produced, for good-faith disclosures to law enforcement or in legal proceedings, or for disclosures relating to a matter of public concern.¹⁴

How to Report and Get Images Taken Down

Speed matters. Reports to the FBI can go through a local field office, the 1-800-CALL-FBI line, or online at tips.fbi.gov, and online exploitation complaints can be filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.⁷ Filing creates a record even if charges don’t follow right away, and it can support a later civil case or protective order.

For victims under 18, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children runs takeitdown.ncmec.org. The tool converts the image into a digital fingerprint (a hash) on the victim’s own device and shares only the hash with participating platforms, which then scan for and remove matches. The image itself never leaves the device.¹⁶

Adult victims can use StopNCII.org, which uses the same hash-matching approach with partner platforms. The organization reports removing over 200,000 images at a removal rate above 90 percent.¹⁷

Separately, the Take It Down Act’s removal duty gives a victim the right to send a written notice directly to any covered platform and require removal within 48 hours. That right applies to all covered platforms, not only those that participate in the hash-sharing programs.³

1
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Klobuchar’s Bipartisan TAKE IT DOWN Act Signed into Law
2
Congress.gov. Text – S.146 – 119th Congress (2025-2026): TAKE IT DOWN Act
3
Congress.gov. The TAKE IT DOWN Act: A Federal Law Prohibiting Nonconsensual Intimate Visual Depictions
4
Federal Trade Commission. Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261 – Interstate Domestic Violence
7
FBI. Sextortion
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1343 – Fraud by Wire, Radio, or Television
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1030 – Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2251 – Sexual Exploitation of Children
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2252A – Certain Activities Relating to Material Constituting or Containing Child Pornography
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2259 – Mandatory Restitution
13
Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Current Law
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 6851 – Civil Action Relating to Disclosure of Intimate Images
15
U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. Sharing of Intimate Images Without Consent: Know Your Rights
16
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Take It Down
17
StopNCII. Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse