Your Legal Rights as an NCII Victim in California

California NCII Law Overview

Applicable statute: Penal Code § 647(j)(4) and Civil Code § 1708.85

Criminal penalty: up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine for a first offense; felony charges for aggravated cases

Civil remedies: actual damages, emotional distress damages, disgorgement of profits, and attorney fees under Civil Code § 1708.85

California has some of the most comprehensive NCII legal protections in the United States. Penal Code § 647(j)(4) criminalizes the intentional distribution of intimate images without consent when the defendant knows or should know this will cause serious emotional distress, and the depicted person experiences that distress. Civil Code § 1708.85 provides a separate civil right of action with robust damages provisions.

California also enacted AB 602 (2019) and AB 731 (2021) to specifically address deepfake intimate imagery. These statutes allow victims to seek both injunctive relief and damages against people who create and distribute sexually explicit deepfakes featuring a real person's likeness without consent.

The intersection of California's NCII laws with the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act gives California victims a two-tier removal system: a 48-hour federal removal right against covered platforms, and state criminal and civil remedies against the individual responsible for the distribution.

California law also allows victims to sue anonymous defendants and then use the litigation process to subpoena platforms for identifying information about the person who posted their images. This is a powerful tool when the identity of the perpetrator is initially unknown.

Your Rights in California

• Right to demand removal from any platform hosting your intimate images within 48 hours under the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act
• Right to file a criminal complaint regardless of whether you can identify the person who shared your images
• Right to bring a civil lawsuit for damages under Civil Code § 1708.85 against the person who shared your images
• Right to petition the court for an injunction prohibiting further distribution
• Right to request that search engines de-index URLs hosting your intimate images

How to File in California

File a police report with your local law enforcement agency or the California Highway Patrol. The California Attorney General's office accepts NCII complaints at oag.ca.gov. For civil actions, file in Superior Court in the county where the violation occurred.

Local Support Resources

• California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), calcasa.org
• Bay Area Women Against Rape, bawar.net
• Peace Over Violence (Los Angeles), peaceoverviolence.org
• RAINN National Hotline, 1-800-656-HOPE

Federal Rights Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act

In addition to California state law, the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (47 U.S.C. 223a) gives you a direct right to demand removal from any covered platform within 48 hours. Covered platforms, those with 10 million or more monthly US active users, face FTC enforcement with civil penalties up to $50,000 per violation per day if they do not comply. ScanErase's biometric scan finds every platform hosting your images, so you can file the formal notice yourself.