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The measure was reintroduced on May 21, 2025, by Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Representative Laurel Lee. The official announcement describes a bill, not an enacted law, so it does not establish that survivors already have this proposed federal civil action. A separate law, the TAKE IT DOWN Act, became federal law on May 19, 2025 and addresses intentional online disclosure through criminal penalties and a platform-removal framework.
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Is the DEFIANCE Act law yet?
Not according to the May 21, 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee announcement. That release describes a bipartisan, bicameral reintroduction of the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, or DEFIANCE Act. It does not establish final enactment of the 2025 proposal.
The Senate unanimously passed a 2024 version in July 2024, but the 2025 item was a reintroduction. Calling DEFIANCE an existing federal lawsuit right would therefore overstate the cited official record.
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Who sponsored the reintroduced bill?
- Senator Dick Durbin
- Senator Lindsey Graham
- Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Representative Laurel Lee
The sponsors described the proposal as a way for survivors to pursue justice through civil litigation when exploitative AI-generated intimate images are used to intimidate, shame, or harm them.
What the DEFIANCE Act would cover
More than simply posting an image
The cited description covers people who knowingly:
- Produce a nonconsensual sexually explicit digital forgery
- Distribute it
- Solicit it
- Receive it
- Possess it with intent to distribute it
That conduct list is broader than a rule aimed only at the person who uploads a file. The proposal is directed at nonconsensual sexually explicit digital forgeries; the cited release does not describe a blanket ban on every synthetic image, parody, or ordinary satire.
The proposed remedy is civil
DEFIANCE’s central change would be a federal civil right of action. A survivor would use a civil case to seek court relief under the bill’s terms. The announcement does not provide a final damages schedule or establish that the proposal has become enforceable law.
How DEFIANCE differs from the TAKE IT DOWN Act
These measures address related harms but use different legal mechanisms and cover different conduct.
| Question | DEFIANCE Act proposal | TAKE IT DOWN Act |
|---|---|---|
| Legal status in the cited official material | Reintroduced May 21, 2025; enactment of that reintroduction is not established | Enacted May 19, 2025 as Public Law 119-12 |
| Main remedy | Federal civil action for survivors | Federal criminal prohibition on intentional disclosure, plus a statutory platform-removal framework |
| Conduct emphasized | Knowingly producing, distributing, soliciting, receiving, or possessing with intent to distribute a nonconsensual sexually explicit digital forgery | Knowingly publishing covered nonconsensual intimate depictions through an interactive computer service |
| Reader takeaway | Would create a route for a survivor to bring a civil case if enacted | Already addresses intentional online disclosure under federal law |
What TAKE IT DOWN already does
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, formally the “Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act,” criminalizes intentional disclosure of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions through an interactive computer service.
Its statute also includes a platform-removal framework. That makes it different from DEFIANCE: TAKE IT DOWN is an enacted criminal and online-disclosure measure, while DEFIANCE is described as a proposed civil remedy that reaches creation and several distribution-related acts.
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Definitions that determine whether a deepfake is covered
Digital forgery
TAKE IT DOWN defines a “digital forgery” as an intimate visual depiction of an identifiable individual created through software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or another technological means that, viewed as a whole by a reasonable person, is indistinguishable from an authentic depiction.
Consent
The statute defines consent as “an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary authorization” made by an individual free from force, fraud, duress, misrepresentation, or coercion. Merely having access to an ordinary photograph is not the same as authorization for an intimate depiction.
Conditions listed for adult depictions
For adult depictions, the law’s listed conditions include:
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- A reasonable expectation of privacy
- No voluntary public or commercial exposure
- No public-concern exception
- Intent to cause harm, or actual psychological, financial, or reputational harm
Those definitions and conditions matter because the federal statute is not written as a rule covering every altered or computer-generated image. Coverage turns on factors including identifiability, whether the depiction is intimate, consent, privacy, and the required harm-related circumstances.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why lawmakers cite deepfake-porn growth
The Senate Judiciary Committee release cited research to illustrate the scale of nonconsensual deepfake pornography. These figures are historical measurements reported in that 2025 release, not a new 2026 census:
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- A researcher reported that nonconsensual pornographic deepfake videos had increased ninefold since 2019.
- The cited research reported almost four billion total views for those videos.
- Monthly traffic to the 20 largest “deepfake” sites rose 285 percent from July 2020 to July 2023.
- The five most popular “deepfake” sites received 25.2 million search-engine visits in July 2023.
Senators and representatives used those figures to argue that synthetic intimate imagery can be deployed for exploitation and harassment at significant scale.
Another proposal: the Sue VOYEURS Act
DEFIANCE is not the only 2025 bill involving intimate-image abuse. Congress.gov lists H.R. 1204, the Sue VOYEURS Act, as introduced on February 11, 2025 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
That separate bill proposes a civil action for the nonconsensual capture of intimate visual depictions. Its text specifies actual or liquidated damages of $150,000 for each depiction, along with attorney’s fees and litigation costs. It should not be treated as the DEFIANCE Act or as evidence that DEFIANCE has been enacted.
What the status means for readers
The practical distinction is straightforward: DEFIANCE is the proposed federal civil lawsuit route described in the May 21, 2025 announcement, while TAKE IT DOWN is the federal law already enacted on May 19, 2025 for intentional online disclosure of covered nonconsensual intimate depictions.
Until an official enactment establishes otherwise, reports should describe DEFIANCE as a bill and avoid saying that it already gives women or other survivors a new federal civil cause of action.
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