DEFIANCE Act of 2025
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Disrupt Explicit Forged Images And Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2025 or the DEFIANCE Act of 2025
This bill expands civil remedies for the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images (i.e., nonconsensual pornography). The bill also establishes a new federal civil action for nonconsensual conduct involving intimate digital forgeries (i.e., deepfakes). The term intimate digital forgery means any intimate visual depiction of an identifiable individual created using software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or other computer-generated or technological means that looks authentic.
With respect to the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images, current law allows an identifiable individual to recover civil remedies, including litigation costs, damages, and injunctive relief. This bill increases the available damages by allowing the individual to recover punitive damages and by including, as part of actual damages, profits of the defendant that are attributable to the conduct at issue.
The bill also allows an identifiable individual who is the subject of an intimate digital forgery to file a federal civil action against anyone who knowingly discloses, produces or possesses with intent to disclose, or solicits and receives the intimate digital forgery without the individual's consent. Under the bill, the identifiable individual may recover the same expanded civil remedies that are available for the nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images.
Finally, the bill establishes a 10-year statute of limitations for filing civil actions involving nonconsensual intimate digital forgeries or nonconsensual disclosure of intimate images. The statute begins to run when the individual discovers the violation or turns 18, whichever is later.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on May 21, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on May 21, 2025: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced it on May 21, 2025, and 65 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 33 Democrats, 32 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on May 21, 2025, 477 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 477 days ago, on May 21, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers