President Trump has now signed the Take It Down Act, criminalizing sexual deepfakes at a federal stage within the US. On the identical time, the CivitAI group’s bid to ‘clear up its act’ relating to NSFW AI and celeb output has in the end did not appease cost processors, main the positioning to hunt options or face shutdown. All this within the mere two weeks because the oldest and largest deepfake porn web site on the planet went offline…
It has been a momentous few weeks for the state of unregulated picture and video deepfaking. Simply over two weeks in the past, the quantity #1 area for the group sharing of superstar deepfake porn. Mr. Deepfakes, all of a sudden took itself offline after greater than seven years in a dominant and much-studied place as the worldwide locus for sexualized AI superstar content material. By the point it went down, the positioning was receiving an common of greater than 5 million visits a month.
Background, the Mr. Deepfakes area in early Could; inset, the suspension discover, now changed by a 404 error, because the area was apparently bought by an unknown purchaser on the 4th of Could, 2025 (https://www.whois.com/whois/mrdeepfakes.com). Supply: mrdeepfakes.com
The cessation of companies for Mr. Deepfakes was formally attributed to the withdrawal of a ‘vital service supplier’ (see inset picture above, which was changed by area failure inside every week). Nevertheless, a collaborative journalistic investigation had de-anonymized a key determine behind Mr.Deepfakes immediately previous to the shutdown, permitting for the chance that the positioning was shuttered for that particular person’s private and/or authorized causes.
Across the identical time, CivitAI, the business platform broadly used for superstar and NSFW LoRAs, imposed a set of bizarre and controversial self-censorship measures. These affected deepfake technology, mannequin internet hosting, and a broader slate of latest guidelines and restrictions, together with full bans on sure marginal NSFW fetishes. and what it termed ‘extremist ideologies’.
These measures have been prompted by cost suppliers apparently threatening to withdraw companies from the area until modifications relating to NSFW content material and superstar AI depictions have been made.
CivitAI Lower Off
As of in the present day, it seems that the measures taken by CivitAI haven’t appeased VISA and Mastercard: a new put up† on the web site, from Group Engagement Supervisor Alasdair Nicoll, reveals that card funds for CivitAI (whose ‘buzz’ digital cash system is generally powered by real-world credit score and debit playing cards) will probably be halted from this Friday (Could twenty third, 2025).
It will forestall customers from renewing month-to-month memberships or shopping for new buzz. Although Nicoll advises that customers can keep present membership privileges by switching to an annual membership (costing†† $100-$550 USD) earlier than Friday, clearly the longer term is considerably unsure for the area presently (It ought to be famous that annual memberships went stay on the identical time that the announcement concerning the lack of cost processors was made).
Relating to the shortage of a cost processor, Nicoll says ‘We’re speaking to each supplier snug with AI innovation’.
As to the failure of latest efforts to adequately rethink the positioning’s oft-criticized insurance policies round celeb AI and NSFW content material, Nicoll states within the put up:
‘Some cost firms label generative-AI platforms excessive threat, particularly once we enable user-generated mature content material, even when it’s authorized and moderated. That coverage selection, not something customers did, pressured the cutoff.’
A remark from person ‘Faeia’, designated as the corporate’s chief of workers of their CivitAI profile*, provides context to this announcement:
‘Simply to make clear, we’re being faraway from the cost processor as a result of we selected to not take away NSFW and grownup content material from the platform. We stay dedicated to supporting every kind of creators and are engaged on various options.’
As a conventional driver of latest applied sciences, it is not unusual for NSFW content material for use to kick-start curiosity in a website, know-how or platform – just for the preliminary adherents to be rejected as soon as sufficient ‘authentic’ capital and/or a user-base is established (i.e., sufficient customers for the entity to outlive, when shorn of a NSFW context).
It appeared for some time that CivitAI would comply with Tumblr and various different initiatives down this route in direction of a ‘sanitized’ product able to neglect its roots. Nevertheless, the extra and rising controversy/stigma round AI-generated content material of any form represents a cumulative weight that appears set to stop a last-minute rescue, on this case. Within the meantime, the official announcement advises customers to undertake crypto as a substitute cost technique.
Pretend Out
The arrival of President Donald Trump enthusiastically signing the Federal TAKE IT DOWN Act is prone to have influenced a few of these occasions. The brand new regulation criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate imagery, together with AI-generated deepfakes.
The laws mandates that platforms take away flagged content material inside 48 hours, with enforcement overseen by the Federal Commerce Fee. The prison provisions of the regulation take impact instantly, permitting for the prosecution of people who knowingly publish or threaten to publish non-consensual intimate photos (together with AI-generated deepfakes) inside the purview of the US.
Whereas the regulation acquired uncommon bipartisan assist, in addition to backing from tech firms and advocacy teams, critics argue it could suppress authentic content material and threaten privateness instruments like encryption. Final month the Digital Frontier Basis (EFF) declared opposition to the invoice, asserting that the takedown mechanisms it mandates goal a broader swathe of fabric than the narrower definition of non-consensual intimate imagery discovered elsewhere within the laws.
‘The takedown provision in TAKE IT DOWN applies to a wider class of content material—probably any photos involving intimate or sexual content material—than the narrower NCII definitions discovered elsewhere within the invoice. The takedown provision additionally lacks vital safeguards towards frivolous or bad-faith takedown requests.
‘Providers will depend on automated filters, that are infamously blunt instruments. They ceaselessly flag authorized content material, from fair-use commentary to information reporting. The regulation’s tight time-frame requires that apps and web sites take away speech inside 48 hours, not often sufficient time to confirm whether or not the speech is definitely unlawful.
‘In consequence, on-line service suppliers, notably smaller ones, will possible select to keep away from the onerous authorized threat by merely depublishing the speech quite than even making an attempt to confirm it.’
Platforms now have as much as one yr from the regulation’s enactment to determine a proper notice-and-takedown course of, enabling affected people or their representatives to invoke the statute in in search of content material elimination.
Because of this though the prison provisions are instantly in impact, platforms aren’t legally obligated to adjust to the takedown infrastructure (akin to receiving and processing requests) till that one-year window has elapsed.
Does the TAKE IT DOWN Act Cowl AI-Generated Movie star Content material?
Although the TAKE IT DOWN Act crosses all state borders, it doesn’t essentially outlaw all AI-driven media of celebrities. The act criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate photos, together with AI-generated deepfakes, solely when the depicted particular person had a affordable expectation of privateness:
The act states:
“(2) OFFENSE INVOLVING AUTHENTIC INTIMATE VISUAL DEPICTIONS.—
“(A) INVOLVING ADULTS.—Besides [for evidentiary, reporting purposes, etc.], it shall be illegal for any particular person, in interstate or international commerce, to make use of an interactive pc service to knowingly publish an intimate visible depiction of an identifiable particular person who will not be a minor if—
“(i) the intimate visible depiction was obtained or created beneath circumstances wherein the particular person knew or moderately ought to have recognized the identifiable particular person had an inexpensive expectation of privateness;
“(ii) what’s depicted was not voluntarily uncovered by the identifiable particular person in a public or business setting [i.e., self-published porn];
“(iii) what’s depicted will not be a matter of public concern; and
“(iv) publication of the intimate visible depiction—
“(I) is meant to trigger hurt; or
“(II) causes hurt, together with psychological, monetary, or reputational hurt, to the identifiable particular person.
The ‘affordable expectation of privateness’ contingency utilized right here has not historically favored the rights of celebrities. Relying on the case regulation that finally emerges, it is potential that even specific AI-generated content material involving public figures in public or business settings might not fall beneath the Act’s prohibitions.
The ultimate clause about figuring out the extent of hurt is famously elastic in authorized phrases, and on this sense provides nothing notably novel to the legislative burden. Nevertheless, the intent to trigger hurt would appear to restrict the scope of the Act to the context of ‘revenge porn’, the place an (unknown) ex-partner publishes actual or pretend media content material of an (equally unknown) different ex-partner.
Whereas the regulation’s ‘hurt’ requirement could appear ill-suited to instances the place nameless customers put up AI-generated depictions of celebrities, it might show extra related in stalking situations, the place a broader sample of harassment helps the conclusion that a person has intentionally and maliciously focused a public determine throughout a number of fronts.
Although the Act’s reference to ‘lined platforms’ excludes personal channels akin to Sign or e-mail from its takedown provisions, this exclusion applies solely to the duty to implement a proper elimination mechanism by Could 2026. It doesn’t imply that non-consensual AI or actual depictions shared by personal communications fall outdoors the scope of the regulation’s prison prohibitions.
Clearly, a scarcity of on-site reporting mechanisms doesn’t hinder affected events from reporting what’s now unlawful content material to the police; neither are such events precluded from utilizing no matter typical contact strategies a web site might make accessible to make a criticism and request the elimination of offending materials.
The Rights Left Behind
Greater than seven years of mounting public and media criticism over deepfake content material seem to have culminated inside an unusually quick span of time. Nevertheless, whereas the TAKE IT DOWN Act gives sweeping federal prohibitions, it could not apply in each case involving AI-generated simulations, leaving sure situations to be addressed beneath the rising patchwork of state-level deepfake laws, the place the legal guidelines handed typically replicate ‘native curiosity’.
For example, in California, the California Celebrities Rights Act limits the unique use of a celeb’s id to themselves and their property, even after their demise; conversely, Tennessee’s ELVIS Act focuses on safeguarding musicians from unauthorized AI-generated voice and picture reproductions, with every case reflecting a focused method to curiosity teams which are distinguished at state stage.
Most states now have legal guidelines concentrating on sexual deepfakes, although many cease in need of clarifying whether or not these protections prolong equally to personal people and public figures. In the meantime, the political deepfakes that reportedly helped spur Donald Trump’s assist for the brand new federal regulation might, in observe, run up towards constitutional limitations in sure contexts.
† Archived model: https://net.archive.org/net/20250520024834/https://civitai.com/articles/14945
†† Archived model (doesn’t function month-to-month costs): https://net.archive.org/net/20250425020325/https://civitai.inexperienced/pricing
* The precise ‘chief of workers’ to the CEO at CivitAI is listed at LinkedIn beneath an unrelated identify, whereas the similar-sounding ‘Faiona’ is an official CivitAI workers moderator on the area’s subreddit.
First revealed Tuesday, Could 20, 2025