A three-page open letter sent under the seal of the FTC Office of the Chairman, signed by Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson, to 15 named platforms on May 11, 2026, eight days before the TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA) Section 3 compliance deadline of May 19, 2026. It recaps the statute's Section 3 mandate, sets out seven compliance points, states a per-violation civil penalty of $53,088, and closes with a non-binding-guidance disclaimer.
Provenance
The letter was published as a PDF on the FTC website. It was addressed to 15 named platforms: Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok, and X. The recipient lines are redacted to "[Name] / [Address] / [Email]" in the published copy. It pairs with a same-day FTC press release (FTC Chairman Ferguson Advises Companies to Comply with the Take It Down Act.md). The signature line reads "Andrew N. Ferguson, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission."
Summary of contents
The letter consists of an opening recap of TIDA's Section 3 mandate, seven bulleted compliance points, a one-line legal-disclaimer paragraph, and Ferguson's signature.
The seven compliance points
- Scope of "covered platform." TIDA reaches "various websites, apps, and online services, such as social media, messaging, image or video sharing, and gaming platforms." A business is in-scope if it "primarily provides a forum for user-generated content or regularly publishes, curates, hosts, or furnishes intimate content shared without consent."
- Mandatory notice-and-removal process. Platforms must publish "plain-language" information about how to submit a removal request, with notice that is "clear and conspicuous."
- Coverage of synthetic / AI-generated imagery. TIDA explicitly covers "'digital forgeries,' such as images that were digitally created or altered using software, an app, or artificial intelligence," the textual basis for treating AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) on equal footing with authentic material.
- Submission ease (cross-surface UI and non-account-holder access). Platforms must accommodate that intimate content can appear in "posts, messages, comments, livestreams, or other places," should consider per-photo/per-video direct submission buttons, and must give "individuals without an account on your platform an easy way to submit a TIDA removal request." The last clause closes a route by which platforms could otherwise gate removal behind account-creation.
- Mandatory duplicate-removal. Platforms must make "reasonable efforts to find and remove known identical copies" within 48 hours of a valid request; the depicted individual is not required to file separate requests per copy.
- Status-tracking architecture recommendation. The letter recommends per-request identifying numbers and communication channels back to the requester (removal confirmation or rationale for non-removal). It is framed as guidance ("should"), not a strict mandate.
- Cross-platform hash sharing (recommendation). The letter encourages platforms to use hashing to prevent reappearance and to share hashes with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for minor content and StopNCII.org for adult content, formalizing hash-sharing networks as part of the FTC's expected baseline.
Enforcement statement and penalty figure
On enforcement, the letter states: "Violations of TIDA will be enforced by the FTC. The FTC will vigorously enforce TIDA. Be advised that a violation of the Take It Down Act is treated as a violation of an FTC rule. Platforms that violate the law may face FTC enforcement that could result in civil penalties of $53,088 per violation." This is the first FTC disclosure of a dollar figure for TIDA enforcement; previous announcements had been at the framework level. The per-violation figure reflects the inflation-adjusted Section 5(m)(1)(A) FTC Act maximum.
Closing disclaimer
The letter closes: "This guidance does not encompass all requirements that covered platforms must follow under TIDA. Your platform should review the language of the Take It Down Act to understand your full compliance obligations." The effect is that the letter is non-binding interpretive guidance, not a final rule: companies cannot use compliance with the seven points as a defense to an enforcement action where the underlying statutory text is broader.
Context and characterization
The letter is the first Chair-level public communication under TIDA; Ferguson's prior FTC-AI communications were on the 6(b) study and "AI censorship" framings (see Andrew Ferguson). It identifies the 15-letter cohort as the FTC's initial enforcement universe and signals the agency's prioritization of the May 19 deadline. Subsequent on-the-record reporting identified an additional 12 post-effective-date warning letters on May 21, 2026, to unnamed recipients; the 15-letter pre-deadline cohort is the pre-enforcement signaling batch. The $53,088 per-violation figure converts the Act from an abstract enforcement risk into a quantifiable per-incident exposure.
In substance, the letter codifies two design constraints as part of expected compliance: non-account-holder access to the removal flow, against a default in which many platforms gate complaints behind account-creation; and cross-platform hash sharing (NCMEC for minors, StopNCII.org for adults). The Cuevas Tech Policy Press one-year empirical anniversary identified platform-side accountability as the Act's theory of change post-2026; the letter operationalizes that posture.
Citations elsewhere
- Folded into TAKE IT DOWN Act § "Implementation: FTC Ferguson Section 3 Compliance Push" (operative letter text and seven compliance points).
- Folded into Andrew Ferguson (first Chair-level TIDA public communication).
- Folded into Synthetic Media / Deepfakes (the "digital forgeries" textual coverage point).
Relationships
- instance-of: TAKE IT DOWN Act — primary-text guidance interpreting the statute.
- supports: Andrew Ferguson — first Chair-level TIDA action.
- supports: It's Too Soon To Tell If the TAKE IT DOWN ACT Is Working (Cuevas, Tech Policy Press, May 13 2026) — operationalizes the platform-side-accountability posture.
- related: Synthetic Media / Deepfakes — codifies "digital forgeries" coverage.