Law bans sharing private photos without permission, makes platforms remove them fast.
S. 146 — TAKE IT DOWN Act · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · 21 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 16, 2025 · Signed
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What it does
The bill makes it a crime to share private photos or fake sexual videos without permission. Adults who do this can go to prison for up to 3 years. Minors' fake sexual videos bring the same penalty. Social media platforms must remove these photos within 48 hours when asked. The FTC can punish platforms that do not follow this rule.
Who it affects
The law protects adults and minors from private photos being shared without permission. It affects social media platforms, which must set up a fast removal system. It also affects people who share these photos, who can now face criminal charges.
One thing to notice
Platforms have 48 hours to remove photos, which is a tight deadline. What counts as a fake sexual video may be hard to judge as technology changes.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
21 cosponsors: 11 Democrats, 10 Republicans.
- Jan 16, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 16, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
- Feb 13, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation discharged by Unanimous Consent”
- Feb 13, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S988; text: CR S988-990)”
- Apr 28, 2025 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 409 - 2…”
- Apr 28, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Bilirakis moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
- May 19, 2025 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-12”
- May 19, 2025 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
15 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 22 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $37,491,909 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 22 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 95% of bills with any report.
Ted Cruz, who sponsored the bill, received $525,365 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $17,960,000 in 1 report
- Google Client Services LLC — $6,920,000 in 2 reports
- Meta Platforms, Inc. and Various Subsidiaries — $5,990,000 in 1 report
- American Association for Justice — $3,610,000 in 2 reports
- Software & Information Industry Association — $1,396,909 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- crime — An act that breaks the law and can lead to prison time.
- FTC — The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency that stops unfair business practices.
- removal system — A way for people to ask a platform to take down content.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (17,186 characters) on Mar 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
“Law bans sharing private photos without permission, makes platforms remove them fast.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s146/simple Report an error