How to File a TAKE IT DOWN Act Takedown Notice on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube

Quick answer: The TAKE IT DOWN Act forces covered platforms to remove non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated deepfakes, within 48 hours of a victim's report. To file, use each platform's existing reporting flow: TikTok's Sexual Exploitation and Abuse form, Meta's Non-Consensual Intimate Image form, X's intimate-imagery report, and YouTube's Privacy Complaint Process.

If a sexually explicit deepfake of you is online, federal law now gives you a tool to force its removal in 48 hours. The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed in May 2025, takes full effect on May 19, 2026. After that date, every major U.S. platform must honor a valid takedown notice from a victim within two days or face Federal Trade Commission enforcement.

This guide covers exactly how to file on the five biggest platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube. The legal requirements are the same across all of them. The forms and the failure modes are different.

Important: What the Law Actually Covers

The TAKE IT DOWN Act covers non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII): AI-generated or authentic sexually explicit content depicting an identifiable person without their consent. It does not apply to other categories of deepfake content, such as fake political speech, fraudulent celebrity endorsements, or impersonation that does not involve sexual content.

For non-NCII deepfakes, the platforms still have reporting flows, but the 48-hour federal mandate does not apply. If you are dealing with that kind of deepfake, the legal framing in our deepfake law explainer covers the alternative pathways, including state right-of-publicity laws and federal fraud statutes.

48 hours

the time every covered platform now has to remove a victim-reported deepfake of non-consensual intimate imagery after a valid notice. Failure to comply triggers Federal Trade Commission enforcement under the FTC Act.

Source: TAKE IT DOWN Act (S. 146, 119th Congress), signed May 19, 2025.

What Every Takedown Notice Must Include

The law specifies the minimum contents of a valid takedown notice. Each platform's form will ask for additional details, but the legal floor is four things.

A physical or electronic signature from the requesting party.
Identification of the depiction, sufficient for the platform to locate it. A URL is the cleanest version of this.
A brief statement that the requesting party is the person depicted, or is authorized to act on behalf of that person, and that the content was published without consent.
Contact information for the requesting party.

Most platforms also require you to confirm the statement under penalty of perjury. False notices are punishable by federal law, so the perjury attestation is real.

Save your notice text once. You will reuse the same paragraph across every platform you file on. The template at the bottom of this post is ready to copy and paste.

How to File on TikTok

TikTok handles NCII and explicit deepfake reports through its dedicated Sexual Exploitation and Abuse form, hosted on Zendesk.

Where to go: report-sexual-exploitation-abuse-tiktok-us.zendesk.com.

Steps:

Open the form.
Select the category that fits your situation. The two most common are Nonconsensual Intimate Imagery (real or AI-generated sexual content of you posted without consent) and Explicit Deepfake (AI-generated or altered visual depictions of you in sexual conduct or nudity that did not occur).
Provide your full name, email, and country.
Paste the URL of the offending video. If the content is on multiple posts, list every URL; one notice can cover several.
Add your statement of non-consent and confirm under penalty of perjury.
Submit.

What to expect: TikTok typically sends an automated acknowledgement after submission, and under the law, must remove the content within 48 hours of a valid notice. If the report is rejected as insufficient, the rejection email will say what is missing. The most common gaps are unclear identification (provide a photo ID if requested) and ambiguous URLs (link to the specific video, not to the account).

Visual tells matter for documentation. Before you submit, screenshot the video, the account, the post date, and the view count. The Ledger community's TikTok detection guide walks through the AI-generation tells that strengthen a takedown notice when the content is obviously synthetic.

How to File on Instagram and Facebook

Meta runs both platforms through the same Help Center reporting flow. Two forms accept TAKE IT DOWN Act notices.

Where to go:

The Non-Consensual Intimate Image report at meta.com/help/policies/1437976901029950.
The Deepfake Intimate Imagery report at meta.com/help/policies/1352307406415932.

Either is fine for AI-generated NCII. The deepfake-specific form is closer to the TAKE IT DOWN Act language and routes through Meta's deepfake-specific queue.

Steps:

Open the form on the Meta Help Center.
Provide the URL or post identifier of the content. Meta accepts both Instagram and Facebook URLs through the same form.
Confirm you are the person depicted (or an authorized representative) and that the content was published without consent.
Submit your contact info and the perjury attestation.

StopNCII.org option. If you have access to the original image or the deepfake file itself, you can also hash it locally through StopNCII.org and submit the hash to participating platforms, including Meta. This does not replace the takedown notice. It complements it: the hash blocks future re-uploads of the same content even if you have already filed a notice on the existing post.

What to expect: Meta typically sends an acknowledgement after submission. Under TAKE IT DOWN Act compliance, removal must occur within 48 hours.

How to File on X

X has had an inconsistent record on NCII removals. Independent research published by TechPolicy Press documented one prior testing period in which X had a 0 percent removal rate on NCII reports compared to a 100 percent rate on copyright reports. May 19, 2026 is the date that gap moves from policy concern to FTC liability.

Where to go: X's in-product report flow handles NCII through the three-dot menu on any post. For escalation, use help.x.com and search "intimate image" or "non-consensual nudity."

Steps:

Open the offending post.
Tap or click the three-dot menu and select Report post.
Choose Intimate image or Non-consensual nudity, depending on the menu version.
Follow the prompts, including a statement of non-consent.
If the in-product flow does not produce a result, use the Help Center contact form for privacy violations and submit a written notice with the URL, your identification, and the perjury attestation.

What to expect: X has the weakest historical NCII enforcement record of the five platforms covered here, and is the most likely to require follow-up under the new law. Screenshot the confirmation. If 48 hours pass without removal, escalate to the FTC complaint flow described below.

How to File on YouTube

YouTube treats NCII deepfakes through its Privacy Complaint Process, the same flow it uses for any unauthorized appearance request. The platform expanded its likeness detection tool in March 2026 to cover government officials, political candidates, and journalists, but the Privacy Complaint Process is open to anyone.

Where to go: support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801895.

Steps:

Open the YouTube privacy complaint guide and click through to the request form.
Select "Yes, I want to file a privacy complaint."
Enter the URL of the video, your full legal name, country, and the timestamp where you appear.
Confirm the depiction is AI-generated or altered and was published without your consent.
Submit.

One structural difference. YouTube gives the uploader 48 hours to act on the complaint before YouTube initiates its own review. The 48-hour clock under the TAKE IT DOWN Act runs from your notice, not from the uploader's response window, so YouTube's existing process now operates inside the legal cap rather than in addition to it.

What to expect: YouTube notifies the uploader. If the uploader removes the content, the complaint closes. If they do not, YouTube reviews the case directly and removes content that meets the policy criteria.

Copy-Paste Template for Your Takedown Notice

Save this template. The bracketed fields are the only parts you change between platforms.

To: [Platform Trust and Safety team]

I am submitting this notice under the TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. No. 119-12,
2025), which requires covered platforms to remove non-consensual intimate
visual depictions, including AI-generated deepfakes, within 48 hours of
receipt of a valid notice.

1. Identification of content
URL(s):
[paste each URL on a new line]

2. Statement of identity and non-consent
I am the person depicted in the content listed above (or am authorized to act
on behalf of the depicted person). The content was published without my
consent. I have a good-faith belief that the depiction qualifies as a
non-consensual intimate visual depiction under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

3. Contact information
Full legal name: [your name]
Email: [your email]
Country: [your country]
Phone (optional): [your phone]

4. Signature
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and accurate.

[your electronic signature]
[date]

This template covers the four legal requirements. Each platform's form will paste it cleanly into the free-text fields, and most platforms accept it as the entire notice when their structured fields are filled in alongside.

What to Do If the Platform Misses the 48-Hour Deadline

If a covered platform does not remove the content within 48 hours of your valid notice, the law gives you several escalation paths.

File an FTC complaint. Submit to reportfraud.ftc.gov. The FTC enforces TAKE IT DOWN Act compliance under the FTC Act's prohibition on unfair or deceptive practices. Document the notice you sent, the timestamp, and the platform's failure to remove. Pattern-of-failure complaints are what trigger investigations.

Contact your state attorney general. Many state AGs have dedicated NCII units. State enforcement can move faster than federal in some jurisdictions, and several states have parallel deepfake removal laws that allow concurrent action.

For minors, contact the NCMEC CyberTipline. Sexual exploitation of a minor is its own category and goes through report.cybertip.org. Federal law requires faster handling, and the CyberTipline routes to law enforcement in addition to the platform.

Consider civil action. The federal DEFIANCE Act and state right-of-publicity, right-of-privacy, and intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claims all run alongside the TAKE IT DOWN Act. The deepfake law explainer covers when these apply.

If the deepfake involves a minor and is circulating in a school context, the parents' guide to deepfake nudes in schools covers the school-specific reporting flow, NCMEC, and the legal pathway in detail.

A Note on Documentation Before You File

Every takedown notice is stronger with evidence. Before you file on any platform:

Screenshot the post, the account, the timestamp, the view count, and any comments. Use a phone or browser tool that timestamps the screenshot itself.
Save the URL in plain text somewhere durable. URLs change after takedown.
If you can, archive the page on a service like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The platform will remove the content; the archive preserves the record for any later civil or criminal action.
Note the date and time of your notice submission. The 48-hour clock starts then.

If you also want to check whether the underlying account or content has been flagged by other users, you can paste the URL into the Ledger community check below.

Think you found an AI video?

Paste the URL and let the Ledger community verify it. Free.

Check a video

The Bottom Line

The TAKE IT DOWN Act is the strongest legal tool U.S. victims of deepfake NCII have ever had. It does not require you to hire a lawyer. It does not require you to know federal procedure. It requires you to file the right form on the right platform with the four legal elements above, and then to escalate to the FTC if the 48-hour window passes.

The first year of compliance is the test. If you file and the platform misses the window, the FTC complaint you file is part of the evidentiary record that determines whether the law has teeth. Filing matters even when you doubt it will work.

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