DEFIANCE Act of 2024 - S.3696

Summary

The bill seeks to improve rights to relief for individuals affected by non-consensual activities involving intimate digital forgeries, and for other purposes. It creates a federal civil remedy for victims who are identifiable in a “digital forgery,” which is defined as a visual depiction created through the use of software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or any other computer-generated or technological means to falsely appear to be authentic.

The civil remedy applies to digital forgeries that depict the victim in the nude or engaged in sexually explicit conduct or sexual scenarios. The remedy is enforceable against individuals who produced or possessed the forgery with intent to distribute it or who produced, distributed, or received the forgery if the individual knew or recklessly disregarded that the victim did not consent to the conduct.

This bill creates a statute of limitations of 10 years (more than double the default statute of limitations); tolls the running of the statute of limitations until the plaintiff learns about the nonconsensual deepfake intimate image or they turn 18, whichever occurs later; and elaborates on the privacy protections available to plaintiffs during the course of any litigation, particularly with respect to the handling of discovery of the content at issue. These provisions would apply both to existing law relating to nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images and the new cause of action for nonconsensual deepfake intimate images.

Updates

March 3, 2024. Companion bill (H.R.7569) introduced in the House of Representatives.

July 23, 2024. Passed the Senate with an amendment by Voice Vote.