DEFIANCE Act of 2025

Summary

Creates a federal civil cause of action that explicitly covers non‑consensual AI‑generated or computer‑manipulated sexually intimate images and videos (often called deepfakes). The bill adds new legal definitions for “identifiable individual” and “intimate digital forgery,” clarifies that labeling or disclosure does not shield a defendant, and rewrites existing civil‑action rules to allow suits against people who knowingly produce, possess with intent to disclose, disclose, or solicit such intimate digital forgeries. It preserves other parts of the law if any provision is invalidated and states the Act does not change intellectual property law.

• Creates an explicit federal civil cause of action for victims of non‑consensual AI‑generated sexually intimate images (intimate digital forgeries).
• Defines "intimate digital forgery" to include synthetic/AI images that falsely represent an identifiable individual and are indistinguishable from real images to a reasonable person.
• Makes labeling or disclosure of an image's synthetic nature insufficient to remove liability under the law.
• Targets persons who knowingly produced, knowingly possessed with intent to disclose, knowingly disclosed, or knowingly solicited and received such forgeries.
• Requires proof of lack of consent by the depicted individual and the defendant's knowing conduct.
• Preserves other statutory provisions if part of the law is found unconstitutional (severability).
• Clarifies the Act does not change existing intellectual property law.
• Amends and reorganizes an existing federal statute to add the new definitions and civil‑action bases.