Deepfake Laws by Country: The 2026 AI Likeness Tracker

As of October 2026, at least 17 jurisdictions have enacted deepfake and AI likeness laws, according to a comprehensive tracker. In the United States, the TAKE IT DOWN Act signed in May 2025 makes it a federal crime to publish non-consensual intimate images, real or AI-generated, and platforms must remove reported images within 48 hours as of May 19, 2026, with Federal Trade Commission enforcement. South Korea's AI Basic Act took effect on January 22, 2026, criminalizing unlabeled generative AI and deepfakes, as well as possessing or viewing sexual deepfakes, with penalties up to seven years for sexual deepfake crimes and a visible notice requirement for the entire length of realistic deepfakes. Covered US platforms must remove an image within 48 hours of a victim's request and delete known copies.

Mandatory takedown within 48 hours addresses distribution after the fact, but intervention before a synthetic image reaches the child or circulates among peers prevents the initial victimization and the compounding trauma of discovery. Guardii's anti-CSAM module detects AI-generated and deepfake abuse material as it moves through direct-message conversations in real time across platforms, blocking or flagging hostile contact and surfacing the shape and seriousness of a conversation rather than reading every message. That targeted detection architecture complements statutory takedown obligations by preventing the harm at the point of contact, surfacing a child in crisis to a parent, school or professional and enabling rapid escalation to the right authority in an emergency, without requiring every user to prove their age or submit to blanket content surveillance.