Tech

How to Remove Nonconsensual Intimate Images Under the Take It Down Act

If someone has posted intimate pictures or videos of you online, you now have stronger legal tools to compel platforms to remove them, regardless of whether the media is authentic or an AI-generated deepfake.

Tuesday marks the start of full enforcement of the Take It Down Act, which legally requires online platforms — social media, messaging, and image-sharing or video-sharing apps — to implement processes for removing such material in response to valid takedown requests.

Signed into law in 2025, the Take It Down Act was written in response to the increased proliferation of AI-generated and digitally manipulated sexual images. The law,enforced bythe Federal Trade Commission, also applies to authentic nonconsensual intimate imagery shared online.

Zooey Liao/CNET

The FTC isn’t directly responsible for the content removal. Affected individuals must first report the images to the platform administrator via the platform’s on-site tools. The agency will collect reports about platforms that do not comply with the law’s removal requirements, and may use those reports to support enforcement.

The FTC allowsindividuals to report nonconsensual intimate imagery involving themselves or their children. Reports may also be submitted on a victim’s behalf with their consent.

The agency also recommends reporting such incidents to local law enforcement and the FBI’s online tipline when appropriate.

FTC representatives pointed CNET to its press release and didn’t comment further.

How to file a Take It Down request

If someone has shared nonconsensual intimate images of you online, the first step is to report the content directly to the platform using its built-in moderation tools.

On platforms like Instagram and X, you can usually tap the three-dot menu on a post to access reporting options and select a category related to nonconsensual or sexually explicit imagery.

The FTC’s Take It Down Act has a website where you can submit a report if platforms haven’t removed nonconsensual sexual imagery.

Federal Trade Commission

Every platform should have similar reporting tools. The new legislation mandates that the platform must remove the images within 48 hours of a valid report.

If a platform fails to act on a report of nonconsensual intimate imagery, or if reporting tools are unavailable or malfunctioning, victims can file a complaint with the FTC online. The agency may use complaints to identify patterns of noncompliance and pursue enforcement actions against platforms that fail to meet their legal obligations. If an image reappears on a platform, you can submit a new takedown request to the platform.

FTC outlines the steps to submit a report.

Federal Trade Commission

Sexually explicit material involving minors is treated as child sexual abuse material and is subject to stricter legal requirements. It should also be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline. The FTC also encourages people who know about existing pornographic images of minors — whether they be pictures of themselves, their children or another vulnerable minor — to submit a request with the NCMEC’s own Take It Down service.

If a platform doesn’t remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, additional tools are available. One option is , a system run in partnership with the Revenge Porn Helpline that creates a digital fingerprint of an image on the user’s device so participating platforms can detect and block it from being uploaded again.

Tech

Kickstarter rolls back its mature content policy after outcry – Engadget

It explained that it created the new rules due to Stripe’s policy.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter has retracted the new set of rulesaround mature content that it released last week, following an outcry from creators whose campaigns are affected by the change. While the platform still allowed “romance and spicy literature, including comics” under that policy, it enforced stricter rules around pornographic and sexually explicit content. Now, Kickstarter has admitted that the response it got from its community let it know “loud and clear” that the crowdfunding platform got it wrong, so it’s going back to its previous rules.

It explained in its announcement that it updated its policy because of Stripe, its payment processor that operates under its own set of rules.Kickstarter explained that over the past few months, it has seen a growing number of campaigns that it had already approved get suspended by Stripe mid-funding due to their nature.

The platform would advocate for affected creators whenever that happened, and it was able to get Stripe to unfreeze their funds and to continue accepting money on their behalf so they could finish their campaigns. However, Kickstarter wasn’t always successful in getting Stripe’s decision reversed. It thought that the best path forward was to “close the gap” between its rules and Stripe’s so that creators would only have one set of rules to deal with.

“That was the intent, but the decision we made was an abandonment of the core counterculture, f*ck the establishment spirit of Kickstarter, and it left our community vulnerable,” it wrote in its post.

Under its previous rules, which have now been reinstated,pornography and illegal content are still prohibited. But the rules are less restrictive, as they’re more “bare bones and not as specific.” Kickstarter said that Stripe can still suspend campaigns due to their nature, but it promised to advocate for creators and to help them make adjustments to make their projects acceptable to Stripe. The platform called it an “imperfect temporary solution,” so it could still implement changes surrounding mature content in the future.

Kickstarter isn’t the only website affected by payment processors’ policies. Last year, Steam also started banning games that violate the rules and standards of”payment processors and related card networks and banks,” which affected titles with adult themes. Years before that, credit card companies Mastercard and Visa blocked the use of their cards on Pornhub and even severed ties with the advertising arm of the adult website’s parent company MindGeek.

Tech

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, May 20

Looking forthe most recentMini Crossword answer?Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s not too tough today, although I had to pause and think about 6-Down for a bit. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visitCNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

The completed NYT Mini Crossword puzzle for May 20, 2026.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Ross Edgley’s 1,700+-mile journey around Great Britain, for example
Answer: SWIM

5A clue: Fuzzy fruit
Answer: KIWI

6A clue: Someone who assumes the worst intentions in everything
Answer: CYNIC

7A clue: Orangutans, e.g.
Answer: APES

8A clue: Work well together
Answer: MESH

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Former competitor of Google Hangouts
Answer: SKYPE

2D clue: Signature products of Napa Valley
Answer: WINES

3D clue: “Yeah, in my dreams!”
Answer: IWISH

4D clue: Open ___ night
Answer: MIC

6D clue: Something found on a Mac (that anagrams to MAC)
Answer: CAM

Tech

Android XR is finally starting to feel real – Engadget

Last year at Google I/O, we got a promising, if frustratingly limited, look at Android XR. At this year’s event, the company confirmed that the first glasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster are finally coming later this year.

Those frames are still under wraps, though we got a bit of a preview during the I/O keynote. But Google’s developer conference did, at least, give us a much clearer picture of how its smart glasses will work. Given that Meta has a years-long headstart, Google will have a lot to prove. But despite being almost embarrassingly late to the smart glasses game, Google has a few significant advantages. And, after trying out the latest Android XR glasses, I suspect at least some people will prefer these over Meta’s Ray-Ban shades.

The glasses I demoed were not the branded frames briefly shown off during the keynote. They were “reference hardware” that Google uses for its own internal development. These glasses also had a built-in display, unlike the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster specs, which will be audio-only. But they didn’t really look or feel like a prototype either. While not quite as polished as my Ray-Ban Meta frames, they weren’t overly thick or nerdy looking. And they felt much lighter than the extra chunky Meta Ray-Ban Display frames.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

The display setup is similar to the prototype I saw last year, with a single window over the right lens. On the reference hardware, it had a 20-degree field of view, though Google was quick to point out that specific specs could change.

While the display was impressive — it was every bit as crisp and bright as the Meta equivalent — it was obvious that even the audio-only Android XR glasses could have a big advantage over Meta and other would-be rivals. Namely, that Google has been able to integrate its own apps and, yes, Gemini into the frames in a way that seems incredibly useful.

For example, using Google Translate was much more seamless than my experience with Meta’s glasses. I was able to move between a Google rep speaking Spanish and my colleague Igor Bonifacic speaking Serbian and the glasses kept the translation going without interruption. It also adeptly ignored the people around me speaking English, and only showed a real-time translation of what was being said in a foreign language. There probably aren’t that many real-life situations when you would need to move between multiple languages inside of the same conversation, but the fact that it was possible underscores Google’s advantage.

While I’ve generally been impressed with Meta’s AI glasses’ translation abilities, you can only do one language at a time. You also need to download the language to your phone ahead of time, which can make spur of the moment translations tricky.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

The non-display glasses will also still benefit from multimodal capabilities, which rely on the onboard cameras and Gemini to surface information based on your surroundings. I was able to look at a recipe and ask Gemini to add the ingredients to my shopping list on Google Keep. Gemini actually briefly struggled with the command, but I didn’t have to stop and start over. I kept speaking and it was able to adjust on the fly.

I’ve often complained that one of the biggest drawbacks of Meta’s glasses is that they work with relatively few third-party apps. While Meta’s working on fixing that, for now they’re great if you want to read WhatsApp messages or Instagram DMs, but there aren’t as many options outside of the company’s ecosystem. Android XR may also be heavily reliant on Google’s own ecosystem, at least for now, but being able to access Maps, Gmail and Keep feels much more practical to my everyday life.

Maps in particular could be especially useful. In my latest demo, I was once again able to get walking directions in the display, alongside a little map view when looking down towards the ground. The audio-only XR glasses won’t have the benefit of a visual guide, but Google will still be able to provide walking directions via audio cues. You can also look at restaurants and businesses around you and ask Gemini for reviews and information. I’ve long thought that travel is one of the best use cases for smartglasses. The addition of Google Maps data is a real advantage, especially when you think about combining that with other features like real-time translations and navigation.

I still have some unanswered questions about how all this will work when it’s in a pair of glasses people can actually buy. And Google still hasn’t revealed specs or pricing for the consumer version of these glasses. But there’s already a lot to look forward to.

Tech

Gemini Voice Capabilities and Gemini Spark Coming to MacOS This Summer

After dropping the Gemini app on MacOS in April, Google says it’s bringing voice capabilities and the newly unveiled claw-like autonomous AI assistant Gemini Spark to the MacOS app in the coming months — one of the many announcements that came duringGoogle I/O 2026 on Tuesday morning.

Speaking from Google’s Mountain View, California, HQ during Google I/O, Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs, Gemini app and AI Studio, demonstrated how you can select a bunch of documents you’ve uploaded onto your MacBook — in his example, he used paperwork related to his pets, like vaccination records and allergy lists — and then long-press the function key and verbally dictate what you want the AI assistant to do with it.

The demonstration showed you can not only dictate an email relating to the documents (as well as requesting that it sound “friendly”), but at the same time also request that Gemini turn the files you selected into a table.

You then release the function key, and Gemini will put together your multiple verbal requests.

Gemini drafts an email with tables it created out of multiple documents selected via MacOS’ Finder.

Google/Screenshot by CNET

“What it’s done is because I’ve selected those files in Finder using its multimodal understanding, it can go through the PDF, it can go through these images of their invoices, and it’s all controlled by my voice, so it can actually take all that complex information and … it’s got a table in line,” Woodward said.

You can download the Gemini app for MacOS at gemini.google/mac, and then use a simple shortcut to launch it. If you’ve got a MacBook, you can access Gemini at any time by pressingOption and Spaceon the keyboard. It already includes some of Gemini’s best features, likeNano Bananaimage generation.

While most people use AI chatbots via their phones or web apps, a native app for a desktop operating system is a newer development. With Gemini poised to power Apple’s new AI-redesigned Siri, it’s unsurprising that MacBooks would also get Gemini built in.

Gemini’s voice capabilities and Gemini Spark will be arriving on MacOS in the summer.

Gemini Spark is arriving on MacOS this summer.

Google/Screenshot by CNET

Tech

LGs UltraGear is a native 1,000Hz Full HD gaming monitor – Engadget

The company has yet to reveal its price and availability.

LG has introduced what it claims is the world’s first FullHD (1,920 x 1,080) gaming monitor with a native 1,000Hz refresh rate. The company designed the new LG UltraGear with fast-paced first-person shooters in mind, where accurate aiming and speedy reaction times are of utmost importance. It’s most likely overkill for most people, even gamers who play just for the pleasure of it. For competitive players who value high refresh rates in monitors the most, however, the UltraGear seems to be a good model to consider.

Samsung and Acer had launched 1,000Hz models over the past months, but they’re dual-mode monitors that require players to lower their resolution in order to enjoy the highest refresh rate they’re capable of. Players can only activate their 1,000Hz refresh rate capability if they switch to 720p in resolution. In Acer’s case, its monitor switches to 500Hz if it’s at 1440p. LG says the UltraGear can achieve native 1,000Hz at FullHD resolution, which means its screen updates 1,000 times per second.

The higher the refresh rate, the less a screen lags. Monitors with high refresh rates can show moving objects to the users more clearly with less motion blurring and stuttering. Further, it reduces the delay between physical mouse movements or keyboard clicks and the action on screen. Most monitors these days top out at 240Hz, and that’s perfectly fine for most users, even gamers who play FPS titles. Since 1,000Hz monitors are rare, we can’t quite say if they deliver a noticeably better experience that would make them a must-have. Again, LG’s potential customers for this model are mostly highly competitive gamers and actual esports players.

The UltraGear has a 24.5-inchdisplay with an IPS panel and low-reflection film. It has a small base so it doesn’t take up a lot of space and allows users to adjust its tilt and height for the perfect view. It also has an integrated hook for headset storage. Like a lot of devices released these days, UltraGear comes with AI capabilities. It has on-device AI Scene Optimization that adjusts picture settings according to genre, as well as AI Sound for spatial audio. Unfortunately, LG has yet to reveal the model’s pricing and availability.