UK Government Forces 48-Hour Removal of Abusive Images

The proposed amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would treat the removal of intimate image abuse with the same urgency as child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, according to the BBC. This classification signals a significant shift in how the UK government views the severity of digitally fabricated abuse, placing a heavy onus on the platforms that host it.

Failure to comply with the 48-hour takedown rule could result in severe penalties for tech firms. As reported by the BBC, companies face fines of up to 10% of their global annual revenue or could have their services entirely blocked for UK users. The law also aims to streamline the process for victims, who would only need to report an abusive image once for it to be removed across a company’s services, with tech firms then required to prevent the content from being re-uploaded.

The legislative push arrives amid a surge in the accessibility of AI image-generation tools. As detailed by Wired, paid tools that digitally “strip” clothes from photos have existed in darker online corners for years. However, the integration of such capabilities into mainstream platforms, like the AI tool Grok on X, has dramatically lowered the barrier to entry and amplified the public spread of non-consensual intimate imagery.

This move to criminalize the creation of sexual deepfakes is being accelerated by the government, Reuters reported in January. The new law would not only target the distribution of such content but also its genesis, aiming to tackle the problem at its source.

According to the BBC, the proposed rules would also empower internet service providers to block access to rogue websites that host illegal content, closing a loophole for platforms that operate outside the jurisdiction of the UK’s existing Online Safety Act. This creates a more comprehensive net for targeting abuse.

The impact of intimate image abuse is not felt equally. A government report from July 2025, cited by the BBC, found that women, girls, and LGBT people are disproportionately targeted. The same report noted that young men and boys are often victims of financial “sextortion” schemes, where they are blackmailed for money to prevent images from being shared.

Advocacy groups have welcomed the government's forceful stance. Janaya Walker, interim director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, characterized the proposal as a "welcome and powerful move" that "rightly places the responsibility on tech companies to act," according to the BBC’s coverage. This places the burden of enforcement squarely on the largest and most powerful entities in the digital ecosystem.