S. 1396

119th CONGRESS 1st Session

To require transparency with respect to content and content provenance information, to protect artistic content, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES · April 9, 2025 · Sponsor: Ms. Cantwell · Committee: Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

SEC. 1. Short title; table of contents

• This Act may be cited as the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act of 2025.

SEC. 2. Sense of Congress

• It is the sense of Congress that—
  • there is a lack of—
    • visibility into how artificial intelligence systems work;
    • transparency regarding the information used to train such systems; and
    • consensus-based standards and practices to guide the development and deployment of such systems;
  • it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess the nature, origins, and authenticity of digital content that has been generated or modified algorithmically;
  • these deficiencies negatively impact the public and, particularly, the journalists, publishers, broadcasters, and artists whose content is used to train these systems and is manipulated to produce synthetic content and synthetically-modified content that competes unfairly in the digital marketplace with covered content; and
  • the development and adoption of consensus-based standards would mitigate these impacts, catalyze innovation in this nascent industry, and put the United States in a position to lead the development of artificial intelligence systems moving forward.

SEC. 3. Definitions

• In this title:
  • The term artificial intelligence has the meaning given the term in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act of 2020 (). 15 U.S.C. 9401
  • The term artificial intelligence blue-teaming means an effort to conduct operational vulnerability evaluations and provide mitigation techniques to entities who have a need for an independent technical review of the security posture of an artificial intelligence system.
  • The term artificial intelligence red-teaming means structured adversarial testing efforts of an artificial intelligence system to identify risks, flaws, and vulnerabilities of the artificial intelligence system, such as harmful outputs from the system, unforeseen or undesirable system behaviors, limitations, or potential risks associated with the misuse of the system.
  • The term content provenance information means state-of-the-art, machine-readable information documenting the origin and history of a piece of digital content, such as an image, a video, audio, or text.
  • The term covered content means a digital representation, such as text, an image, or audio or video content, of any work of authorship described in section 102 of title 17, United States Code.
  • The term covered platform means a website, internet application, or mobile application available to users in the United States, including a social networking site, video sharing service, search engine, or content aggregation service available to users in the United States, that either—
  • The term deepfake means synthetic content or synthetically-modified content that—
  • The term Director means the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
  • The term synthetic content means information, including works of human authorship such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that has been wholly generated by algorithms, including by artificial intelligence.
  • The term synthetically-modified content means information, including works of human authorship such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that has been significantly modified by algorithms, including by artificial intelligence.
  • The term Under Secretary means the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology.
  • The term watermarking means the act of embedding information that is intended to be difficult to remove into an output, including an output such as text, an image, an audio, a video, software code, or any other digital content or data, for the purposes of verifying the authenticity of the output or the identity or characteristics of its provenance, modifications, or conveyance

SEC. 4. Facilitation of development of standards for content provenance information and detection of synthetic content and synthetically-modified content

• (a) In general
  • The Under Secretary shall establish a public-private partnership to facilitate the development of standards regarding content provenance information technologies and the detection of synthetic content and synthetically-modified content, including with respect to the following:
  • In general
    • Facilitating the development of guidelines and voluntary, consensus-based standards and best practices for watermarking, content provenance information, synthetic content and synthetically-modified content detection, including for images, audio, video, text, and multimodal content, the use of data to train artificial intelligence systems, and such other matters relating to transparency of synthetic media as the Under Secretary considers appropriate.
    • Facilitating the development of guidelines, metrics, and practices to evaluate and assess tools to detect and label synthetic content, synthetically-modified content, and non-synthetic content, including artificial intelligence red-teaming and artificial intelligence blue-teaming.
    • Establishing grand challenges and prizes in coordination with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation to detect and label synthetic content, synthetically-modified content, and non-synthetic content and to develop cybersecurity and other countermeasures to defend against tampering with detection tools, watermarks, or content provenance information.
• (b) Consultation
  • In developing the standards described in subsection (a), the Under Secretary shall consult with the Register of Copyrights and the Director.

SEC. 5. National Institute of Standards and Technology research, development, and public education regarding synthetic content and synthetically-modified content

• (a) Research and development
  • The Under Secretary shall carry out a research program to enable advances in measurement science, standards, and testing relating to the robustness and efficacy of—
    • technologies for synthetic content and synthetically-modified content detection, watermarking, and content provenance information; and
    • cybersecurity protections and other countermeasures used to prevent tampering with such technologies.
• (b) Public education campaigns regarding synthetic content
  • Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall, in consultation with the Register of Copyrights and the Director, carry out a public education campaign regarding synthetic content and synthetically-modified content (including deepfakes), watermarking, and content provenance information.

SEC. 6. Requirements for content provenance information; prohibited acts

• (a) Content provenance information
  • (1) Synthetic content and synthetically-modified content
    • Beginning on the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, any person who, for a commercial purpose, makes available in interstate commerce a tool used for the primary purpose of creating synthetic content or synthetically-modified content shall—
      • taking into consideration the content provenance information standards established under section 4, provide users of such tool with the ability to include content provenance information that indicates the piece of digital content is synthetic content or synthetically-modified content for any synthetic content or synthetically-modified content created by the tool; and
      • in the event a user opts to include content provenance information under subparagraph (A), establish, to the extent technically feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure that such content provenance information is machine-readable and not easily removed, altered, or separated from the underlying content.
  • (2) Covered content
    • Beginning on the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, any person who, for a commercial purpose, makes available in interstate commerce a tool used for the primary purpose of creating or substantially modifying covered content shall—
      • taking into consideration the content provenance information standards established under section 4, provide users of such tool with the ability to include content provenance information for any covered content created or significantly modified by the tool; and
      • in the event a user opts to include content provenance information under subparagraph (A), establish, to the extent technically feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure that such content provenance information is machine-readable and not easily removed, altered, or separated from the underlying content.
• (b) Removal of content provenance information
  • (1) In general
    • It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly remove, alter, tamper with, or disable content provenance information in furtherance of an unfair or deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce.
  • (2) Covered platforms
    • (A) In general
      • Subject to subparagraph (B), it shall be unlawful for a covered platform, to remove, alter, tamper with, or disable content provenance information or to separate the content provenance information from the content so that the content provenance information cannot be accessed by users of the platform.
    • (B) Exception for security research
      • A covered platform shall not be liable for a violation of subparagraph (A) if such covered platform removes, alters, tampers with, or disables content provenance information for a purpose necessary, proportionate, and limited to perform research to enhance the security of the covered platform.
• (c) Prohibition on non-Consensual use of covered content that has attached or associated content provenance information
  • It shall be unlawful for any person, for a commercial purpose, to knowingly use any covered content that has content provenance information that is attached to or associated with such covered content or covered content from which the person knows or should know that content provenance information has been removed or separated in violation of subsection (b), in order to train a system that uses artificial intelligence or an algorithm or to generate synthetic content or synthetically-modified content unless such person obtains the express, informed consent of the person who owns the covered content, and complies with any terms of use pertaining to the use of such content, including terms regarding compensation for such use, as required by the owner of copyright in such content.

SEC. 7. Enforcement

• (a) Enforcement by the Commission
  • Enforcement by the Commission
  • (1) Unfair or deceptive acts or practices
    • A violation of this Act or a regulation promulgated under this Act shall be treated as a violation of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (). 15 U.S.C. 57a(a)(1)(B)
  • (2) Powers of the Commission
    • (A) In general
      • The Commission shall enforce this Act in the same manner, by the same means, and with the same jurisdiction, powers, and duties as though all applicable terms and provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act () were incorporated into and made a part of this title. 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.
    • (B) Privileges and immunities
      • Any person who violates this Act, or a regulation promulgated under this Act shall be subject to the penalties and entitled to the privileges and immunities provided in the Federal Trade Commission Act (). 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.
    • (C) Authority preserved
      • Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the authority of the Commission under any other provision of law.
• (b) Enforcement by States
  • (1) In general
    • In any case in which the attorney general of a State has reason to believe that an interest of the residents of the State has been or is threatened or adversely affected by the engagement of any person in a practice that violates this Act, the attorney general of the State may, as parens patriae, bring a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State in an appropriate district court of the United States to—
      • enjoin further violation of this Act by such person;
      • compel compliance with this Act;
      • obtain damages, restitution, or other compensation on behalf of such residents; and
      • obtain such other relief as the court may consider to be appropriate.
  • (2) Rights of the Commission
    • (A) Notice to the Commission
      • (i) Except as provided in clause (iii), the attorney general of a State shall notify the Commission in writing that the attorney general intends to bring a civil action under paragraph (1) before initiating the civil action.
      • (ii) The notification required by clause (i) with respect to a civil action shall include a copy of the complaint to be filed to initiate the civil action.
      • (iii) If it is not feasible for the attorney general of a State to provide the notification required by clause (i) before initiating a civil action under paragraph (1), the attorney general shall notify the Commission immediately upon instituting the civil action.
    • (B) Intervention by the commission
      • The Commission may—
        • (i) intervene in any civil action brought by the attorney general of a State under paragraph (1); and
        • (ii) upon intervening—
        • be heard on all matters arising in the civil action; and
        • file petitions for appeal of a decision in the civil action.
  • (3) Investigatory powers
    • Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prevent the attorney general of a State from exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general by the laws of the State to conduct investigations, to administer oaths or affirmations, or to compel the attendance of witnesses or the production of documentary or other evidence.
  • (4) Action by the Commission
    • If the Commission institutes a civil action or an administrative action with respect to a violation of this Act, the attorney general of a State may not, during the pendency of such action, bring a civil action under paragraph (1) against any defendant named in the complaint of the Commission for the violation with respect to which the Commission instituted such action.
  • (5) Venue; service or process
    • (A) Venue
      • Any action brought under paragraph (1) may be brought in—
        • (i) the district court of the United States that meets applicable requirements relating to venue under section 1391 of title 28, United States Code; or
        • (ii) another court of competent jurisdiction.
    • (B) Service of process
      • In an action brought under paragraph (1), process may be served in any district in which the defendant—
        • (i) is an inhabitant; or
        • (ii) may be found.
  • (6) Actions by other State officials
    • (A) In general
      • In addition to civil actions brought by attorneys general under paragraph (1), any other officer of a State who is authorized by the State to do so may bring a civil action under paragraph (1), subject to the same requirements and limitations that apply under this subsection to civil actions brought by attorneys general.
    • (B) Savings provision
      • Nothing in this subsection may be construed to prohibit an authorized official of a State from initiating or continuing any proceeding in a court of the State for a violation of any civil or criminal law of the State.
  • (7) Damages
    • If a person brings a civil action for a violation of this Act pursuant to subsection (c) and receives any monetary damages, the court shall reduce the amount of any damages awarded under this subsection by the amount of monetary damages awarded to such person.
• (c) Enforcement by private parties and government entities
  • (1) In general
    • Any person who owns covered content that has content provenance information that is attached to or associated with such covered content may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction against—
      • any person or covered platform for removing, altering, tampering with, or disabling such content provenance information in violation of subsection (b)(1) or (b)(2) of section 6; and
      • any person for using such covered content in violation of section 6(c).
  • (2) Relief
    • In a civil action brought under paragraph (1) in which the plaintiff prevails, the court may award the plaintiff declaratory or injunctive relief, compensatory damages, and reasonable litigation expenses, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.
  • (3) Statute of limitations
    • An action for a violation of this Act brought under this subsection may be commenced not later than 4 years after the date upon which the plaintiff discovers or should have discovered the facts giving rise to such violation.

SEC. 8. Rule of construction

• This Act does not impair or in any way alter the rights of copyright owners under any other applicable law.

SEC. 9. Severability

• If any provision of this Act, or an amendment made by this Act, is determined to be unenforceable or invalid, the remaining provisions of this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall not be affected.