II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1396
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
APRIL9, 2025
Ms. C
ANTWELL(for herself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. HEINRICH) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To require transparency with respect to content and content
provenance information, to protect artistic content, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Content Origin Protec-4
tion and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act 5
of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7
It is the sense of Congress that— 8
(1) there is a lack of— 9
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•S 1396 IS
(A) visibility into how artificial intelligence 1
systems work; 2
(B) transparency regarding the informa-3
tion used to train such systems; and 4
(C) consensus-based standards and prac-5
tices to guide the development and deployment 6
of such systems; 7
(2) it is becoming increasingly difficult to as-8
sess the nature, origins, and authenticity of digital 9
content that has been generated or modified 10
algorithmically; 11
(3) these deficiencies negatively impact the pub-12
lic and, particularly, the journalists, publishers, 13
broadcasters, and artists whose content is used to 14
train these systems and is manipulated to produce 15
synthetic content and synthetically-modified content 16
that competes unfairly in the digital marketplace 17
with covered content; and 18
(4) the development and adoption of consensus- 19
based standards would mitigate these impacts, cata-20
lyze innovation in this nascent industry, and put the 21
United States in a position to lead the development 22
of artificial intelligence systems moving forward. 23
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 24
In this title: 25
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(1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar-1
tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given the term 2
in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence 3
Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 4
(2) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BLUE - 5
TEAMING.—The term ‘‘artificial intelligence blue- 6
teaming’’ means an effort to conduct operational 7
vulnerability evaluations and provide mitigation 8
techniques to entities who have a need for an inde-9
pendent technical review of the security posture of 10
an artificial intelligence system. 11
(3) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RED - 12
TEAMING.—The term ‘‘artificial intelligence red- 13
teaming’’ means structured adversarial testing ef-14
forts of an artificial intelligence system to identify 15
risks, flaws, and vulnerabilities of the artificial intel-16
ligence system, such as harmful outputs from the 17
system, unforeseen or undesirable system behaviors, 18
limitations, or potential risks associated with the 19
misuse of the system. 20
(4) C
ONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION .— 21
The term ‘‘content provenance information’’ means 22
state-of-the-art, machine-readable information docu-23
menting the origin and history of a piece of digital 24
content, such as an image, a video, audio, or text. 25
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(5) COVERED CONTENT .—The term ‘‘covered 1
content’’ means a digital representation, such as 2
text, an image, or audio or video content, of any 3
work of authorship described in section 102 of title 4
17, United States Code. 5
(6) C
OVERED PLATFORM .—The term ‘‘covered 6
platform’’ means a website, internet application, or 7
mobile application available to users in the United 8
States, including a social networking site, video 9
sharing service, search engine, or content aggrega-10
tion service available to users in the United States, 11
that either— 12
(A) generates at least $50,000,000 in an-13
nual revenue; or 14
(B) had at least 25,000,000 monthly active 15
users for not fewer than 3 of the 12 months im-16
mediately preceding any conduct by the covered 17
platform in violation of this Act. 18
(7) D
EEPFAKE.—The term ‘‘deepfake’’ means 19
synthetic content or synthetically-modified content 20
that— 21
(A) appears authentic to a reasonable per-22
son; and 23
(B) creates a false understanding or im-24
pression. 25
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(8) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 1
the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual 2
Property and Director of the United States Patent 3
and Trademark Office. 4
(9) S
YNTHETIC CONTENT .—The term ‘‘syn-5
thetic content’’ means information, including works 6
of human authorship such as images, videos, audio 7
clips, and text, that has been wholly generated by al-8
gorithms, including by artificial intelligence. 9
(10) S
YNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT .— 10
The term ‘‘synthetically-modified content’’ means in-11
formation, including works of human authorship 12
such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that 13
has been significantly modified by algorithms, in-14
cluding by artificial intelligence. 15
(11) U
NDER SECRETARY .—The term ‘‘Under 16
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 17
for Standards and Technology. 18
(12) W
ATERMARKING.—The term 19
‘‘watermarking’’ means the act of embedding infor-20
mation that is intended to be difficult to remove into 21
an output, including an output such as text, an 22
image, an audio, a video, software code, or any other 23
digital content or data, for the purposes of verifying 24
the authenticity of the output or the identity or 25
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characteristics of its provenance, modifications, or 1
conveyance 2
SEC. 4. FACILITATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS 3
FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION 4
AND DETECTION OF SYNTHETIC CONTENT 5
AND SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall estab-7
lish a public-private partnership to facilitate the develop-8
ment of standards regarding content provenance informa-9
tion technologies and the detection of synthetic content 10
and synthetically-modified content, including with respect 11
to the following: 12
(1) Facilitating the development of guidelines 13
and voluntary, consensus-based standards and best 14
practices for watermarking, content provenance in-15
formation, synthetic content and synthetically-modi-16
fied content detection, including for images, audio, 17
video, text, and multimodal content, the use of data 18
to train artificial intelligence systems, and such 19
other matters relating to transparency of synthetic 20
media as the Under Secretary considers appropriate. 21
(2) Facilitating the development of guidelines, 22
metrics, and practices to evaluate and assess tools to 23
detect and label synthetic content, synthetically- 24
modified content, and non-synthetic content, includ-25
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ing artificial intelligence red-teaming and artificial 1
intelligence blue-teaming. 2
(3) Establishing grand challenges and prizes in 3
coordination with the Defense Advanced Research 4
Projects Agency and the National Science Founda-5
tion to detect and label synthetic content, syn-6
thetically-modified content, and non-synthetic con-7
tent and to develop cybersecurity and other counter-8
measures to defend against tampering with detection 9
tools, watermarks, or content provenance informa-10
tion. 11
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—In developing the standards de-12
scribed in subsection (a), the Under Secretary shall con-13
sult with the Register of Copyrights and the Director. 14
SEC. 5. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECH-15
NOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND 16
PUBLIC EDUCATION REGARDING SYNTHETIC 17
CONTENT AND SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED 18
CONTENT. 19
(a) R
ESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.—The Under 20
Secretary shall carry out a research program to enable ad-21
vances in measurement science, standards, and testing re-22
lating to the robustness and efficacy of— 23
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(1) technologies for synthetic content and syn-1
thetically-modified content detection, watermarking, 2
and content provenance information; and 3
(2) cybersecurity protections and other counter-4
measures used to prevent tampering with such tech-5
nologies. 6
(b) P
UBLICEDUCATIONCAMPAIGNSREGARDING 7
S
YNTHETICCONTENT.—Not later than 1 year after the 8
date of enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall, 9
in consultation with the Register of Copyrights and the 10
Director, carry out a public education campaign regarding 11
synthetic content and synthetically-modified content (in-12
cluding deepfakes), watermarking, and content provenance 13
information. 14
SEC. 6. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE IN-15
FORMATION; PROHIBITED ACTS. 16
(a) C
ONTENTPROVENANCEINFORMATION.— 17
(1) S
YNTHETIC CONTENT AND SYN -18
THETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT .—Beginning on 19
the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment 20
of this Act, any person who, for a commercial pur-21
pose, makes available in interstate commerce a tool 22
used for the primary purpose of creating synthetic 23
content or synthetically-modified content shall— 24
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(A) taking into consideration the content 1
provenance information standards established 2
under section 4, provide users of such tool with 3
the ability to include content provenance infor-4
mation that indicates the piece of digital con-5
tent is synthetic content or synthetically-modi-6
fied content for any synthetic content or syn-7
thetically-modified content created by the tool; 8
and 9
(B) in the event a user opts to include con-10
tent provenance information under subpara-11
graph (A), establish, to the extent technically 12
feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure 13
that such content provenance information is 14
machine-readable and not easily removed, al-15
tered, or separated from the underlying content. 16
(2) C
OVERED CONTENT .—Beginning on the 17
date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of 18
this Act, any person who, for a commercial purpose, 19
makes available in interstate commerce a tool used 20
for the primary purpose of creating or substantially 21
modifying covered content shall— 22
(A) taking into consideration the content 23
provenance information standards established 24
under section 4, provide users of such tool with 25
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the ability to include content provenance infor-1
mation for any covered content created or sig-2
nificantly modified by the tool; and 3
(B) in the event a user opts to include con-4
tent provenance information under subpara-5
graph (A), establish, to the extent technically 6
feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure 7
that such content provenance information is 8
machine-readable and not easily removed, al-9
tered, or separated from the underlying content. 10
(b) R
EMOVAL OFCONTENTPROVENANCEINFORMA-11
TION.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 13
person to knowingly remove, alter, tamper with, or 14
disable content provenance information in further-15
ance of an unfair or deceptive act or practice in or 16
affecting commerce. 17
(2) C
OVERED PLATFORMS .— 18
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subpara-19
graph (B), it shall be unlawful for a covered 20
platform, to remove, alter, tamper with, or dis-21
able content provenance information or to sepa-22
rate the content provenance information from 23
the content so that the content provenance in-24
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formation cannot be accessed by users of the 1
platform. 2
(B) E
XCEPTION FOR SECURITY RE -3
SEARCH.—A covered platform shall not be liable 4
for a violation of subparagraph (A) if such cov-5
ered platform removes, alters, tampers with, or 6
disables content provenance information for a 7
purpose necessary, proportionate, and limited to 8
perform research to enhance the security of the 9
covered platform. 10
(c) P
ROHIBITION ON NON-CONSENSUALUSE OF 11
C
OVEREDCONTENTTHATHASATTACHED ORASSOCI-12
ATEDCONTENTPROVENANCEINFORMATION.—It shall be 13
unlawful for any person, for a commercial purpose, to 14
knowingly use any covered content that has content prove-15
nance information that is attached to or associated with 16
such covered content or covered content from which the 17
person knows or should know that content provenance in-18
formation has been removed or separated in violation of 19
subsection (b), in order to train a system that uses artifi-20
cial intelligence or an algorithm or to generate synthetic 21
content or synthetically-modified content unless such per-22
son obtains the express, informed consent of the person 23
who owns the covered content, and complies with any 24
terms of use pertaining to the use of such content, includ-25
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ing terms regarding compensation for such use, as re-1
quired by the owner of copyright in such content. 2
SEC. 7. ENFORCEMENT. 3
(a) E
NFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION.— 4
(1) U
NFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC -5
TICES.—A violation of this Act or a regulation pro-6
mulgated under this Act shall be treated as a viola-7
tion of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or 8
practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the 9
Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 10
57a(a)(1)(B)). 11
(2) P
OWERS OF THE COMMISSION .— 12
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Commission shall 13
enforce this Act in the same manner, by the 14
same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 15
powers, and duties as though all applicable 16
terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 17
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were in-18
corporated into and made a part of this title. 19
(B) P
RIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES .—Any 20
person who violates this Act, or a regulation 21
promulgated under this Act shall be subject to 22
the penalties and entitled to the privileges and 23
immunities provided in the Federal Trade Com-24
mission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 25
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(C) AUTHORITY PRESERVED .—Nothing in 1
this Act shall be construed to limit the author-2
ity of the Commission under any other provi-3
sion of law. 4
(b) E
NFORCEMENT BY STATES.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In any case in which the at-6
torney general of a State has reason to believe that 7
an interest of the residents of the State has been or 8
is threatened or adversely affected by the engage-9
ment of any person in a practice that violates this 10
Act, the attorney general of the State may, as 11
parens patriae, bring a civil action on behalf of the 12
residents of the State in an appropriate district 13
court of the United States to— 14
(A) enjoin further violation of this Act by 15
such person; 16
(B) compel compliance with this Act; 17
(C) obtain damages, restitution, or other 18
compensation on behalf of such residents; and 19
(D) obtain such other relief as the court 20
may consider to be appropriate. 21
(2) R
IGHTS OF THE COMMISSION .— 22
(A) N
OTICE TO THE COMMISSION .— 23
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 24
in clause (iii), the attorney general of a 25
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State shall notify the Commission in writ-1
ing that the attorney general intends to 2
bring a civil action under paragraph (1) 3
before initiating the civil action. 4
(ii) C
ONTENTS.—The notification re-5
quired by clause (i) with respect to a civil 6
action shall include a copy of the complaint 7
to be filed to initiate the civil action. 8
(iii) E
XCEPTION.—If it is not feasible 9
for the attorney general of a State to pro-10
vide the notification required by clause (i) 11
before initiating a civil action under para-12
graph (1), the attorney general shall notify 13
the Commission immediately upon insti-14
tuting the civil action. 15
(B) I
NTERVENTION BY THE COMMIS -16
SION.—The Commission may— 17
(i) intervene in any civil action 18
brought by the attorney general of a State 19
under paragraph (1); and 20
(ii) upon intervening— 21
(I) be heard on all matters aris-22
ing in the civil action; and 23
(II) file petitions for appeal of a 24
decision in the civil action. 25
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(3) INVESTIGATORY POWERS .—Nothing in this 1
subsection may be construed to prevent the attorney 2
general of a State from exercising the powers con-3
ferred on the attorney general by the laws of the 4
State to conduct investigations, to administer oaths 5
or affirmations, or to compel the attendance of wit-6
nesses or the production of documentary or other 7
evidence. 8
(4) A
CTION BY THE COMMISSION .—If the Com-9
mission institutes a civil action or an administrative 10
action with respect to a violation of this Act, the at-11
torney general of a State may not, during the pend-12
ency of such action, bring a civil action under para-13
graph (1) against any defendant named in the com-14
plaint of the Commission for the violation with re-15
spect to which the Commission instituted such ac-16
tion. 17
(5) V
ENUE; SERVICE OR PROCESS.— 18
(A) V
ENUE.—Any action brought under 19
paragraph (1) may be brought in— 20
(i) the district court of the United 21
States that meets applicable requirements 22
relating to venue under section 1391 of 23
title 28, United States Code; or 24
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(ii) another court of competent juris-1
diction. 2
(B) S
ERVICE OF PROCESS.—In an action 3
brought under paragraph (1), process may be 4
served in any district in which the defendant— 5
(i) is an inhabitant; or 6
(ii) may be found. 7
(6) A
CTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFICIALS .— 8
(A) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to civil ac-9
tions brought by attorneys general under para-10
graph (1), any other officer of a State who is 11
authorized by the State to do so may bring a 12
civil action under paragraph (1), subject to the 13
same requirements and limitations that apply 14
under this subsection to civil actions brought by 15
attorneys general. 16
(B) S
AVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this 17
subsection may be construed to prohibit an au-18
thorized official of a State from initiating or 19
continuing any proceeding in a court of the 20
State for a violation of any civil or criminal law 21
of the State. 22
(7) D
AMAGES.—If a person brings a civil action 23
for a violation of this Act pursuant to subsection (c) 24
and receives any monetary damages, the court shall 25
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reduce the amount of any damages awarded under 1
this subsection by the amount of monetary damages 2
awarded to such person. 3
(c) E
NFORCEMENT BY PRIVATEPARTIES ANDGOV-4
ERNMENTENTITIES.— 5
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any person who owns cov-6
ered content that has content provenance informa-7
tion that is attached to or associated with such cov-8
ered content may bring a civil action in a court of 9
competent jurisdiction against— 10
(A) any person or covered platform for re-11
moving, altering, tampering with, or disabling 12
such content provenance information in viola-13
tion of subsection (b)(1) or (b)(2) of section 6; 14
and 15
(B) any person for using such covered con-16
tent in violation of section 6(c). 17
(2) R
ELIEF.—In a civil action brought under 18
paragraph (1) in which the plaintiff prevails, the 19
court may award the plaintiff declaratory or injunc-20
tive relief, compensatory damages, and reasonable 21
litigation expenses, including a reasonable attorney’s 22
fee. 23
(3) S
TATUTE OF LIMITATIONS .—An action for 24
a violation of this Act brought under this subsection 25
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may be commenced not later than 4 years after the 1
date upon which the plaintiff discovers or should 2
have discovered the facts giving rise to such viola-3
tion. 4
SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 5
This Act does not impair or in any way alter the 6
rights of copyright owners under any other applicable law. 7
SEC. 9. SEVERABILITY. 8
If any provision of this Act, or an amendment made 9
by this Act, is determined to be unenforceable or invalid, 10
the remaining provisions of this Act and the amendments 11
made by this Act shall not be affected. 12
Æ
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