DEFIANCE Act of 2025

Key Points

• This bill, introduced by a group of Senators, would allow people to sue anyone who creates or shares fake, sexually explicit images of them made with AI. These 'digital forgeries' often look like real photos or videos but show people in situations that never actually happened.
• Victims could be awarded at least $150,000 in damages. This amount can increase to $250,000 if the fake images were used to stalk or harass the person. A judge could also order the person who made the images to delete them and stop showing them to anyone else.
• The law would protect the privacy of victims during a lawsuit by letting them use a fake name in court records. It also requires that their personal information and the fake images themselves be kept private and sealed from the public during the legal process.
• People would have up to 10 years to file a lawsuit after they discover the fake images or after they turn 18 years old. This gives victims a long window of time to seek justice, even if they don't find out about the images right away.
• This policy addresses the growing problem of 'deepfakes' being used to bully, harass, or embarrass people. It aims to give victims a way to fight back against those who use technology to violate their privacy and damage their reputations.