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    AI Policy Radar

    TAKE IT DOWN Act

    The first significant federal law directly regulating AI-generated content — proof that narrowly-scoped, harm-specific AI legislation can pass Congress even amid the broader deregulatory stance, and a template for future deepfake rules.

    What it is

    Rare bipartisan federal AI statute criminalizing publication of non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, and requiring platforms to remove reported content within 48 hours (systems required by May 2026).

    Platform notice-and-removal systems were required by 19 May 2026.

    Who is affected

    The first significant federal law directly regulating AI-generated content — proof that narrowly-scoped, harm-specific AI legislation can pass Congress even amid the broader deregulatory stance, and a template for future deepfake rules.

    Key obligations

    • Criminal penalties for publishing non-consensual intimate imagery, real or AI-generated
    • Covered platforms: 48-hour notice-and-removal process (operational since May 2026), FTC-enforced

    Recent signals

    • 29 September 2026

      US executive order renames AI as 'Super Intelligence' in federal communications

      Executive Order 14434 directs agencies to use the term Super Intelligence and asks the science office to propose a federal definition. Terminological rather than regulatory, but a definition could shape later rules.

    • 11 December 2025

      US executive order targets state AI laws for preemption

      EO 14365 creates a DOJ AI Litigation Task Force and funding levers against state AI regulation, setting up the defining federalism fight of US AI governance.

    • 23 July 2025

      White House releases America's AI Action Plan

      90+ actions across innovation, infrastructure and international leadership — including procurement rules for 'ideologically neutral' AI and full-stack export packages.

    • 19 May 2025

      US enacts TAKE IT DOWN Act on deepfake intimate imagery

      Rare bipartisan federal AI statute criminalizes non-consensual intimate deepfakes and mandates 48-hour platform takedowns.