SB 1142

SB1142:v96#DOCUMENT

Bill Start

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 1142

An act to add Chapter 22.6.1 (commencing with Section 22650) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, and to add Section 3344.2 to the Civil Code, relating to personal rights.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 1142, as amended, Becker. Digital Dignity Act.

Existing law prohibits the false impersonation of another person in either that person’s personal or official capacity with the intent to steal or defraud, as specified. Existing law protects all people from defamation, including libel and slander, as provided. Existing law makes any person who knowingly uses another’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness for commercial purposes, as specified, without that person’s prior consent liable for damages, as specified. Existing law provides that a party seeking relief pursuant to those provisions may also seek an injunction or temporary restraining order according to specified procedures.

This bill would enact the Digital Dignity Act. The act would subject to specified liability a person who, by distributing content with actual knowledge that the content includes the use of a digital replica, violates is found guilty of violating a criminal provisions in provision for which false impersonation of another is a required element, as prescribed, or is found liable for defamation in a civil action, action arising from the use or portrayal through a digital replica, as provided.

The Digital Dignity Act would require a product, service, internet website, or application large online platform that is both includes a generative AI tool, as defined, and a large online platform that allows provides users with the functionality to create a digital replica of other individuals to implement and maintain provide a mechanism by which users can revoke access to their for individuals to report content that violates the platform’s terms of service or a provision of law relating to the individual’s digital replica created by other people using the large online platform’s generative AI tool at any time, and to submit to the large online platform any certified court order or judgment ordering the removal of any content involving the individual’s digital replica on the platform or finding that content involving the individual’s digital replica was defamatory, fraudulent, or any other form of image appropriation not permitted by law, as prescribed. Upon receipt of the court order or judgment, the act would require the large online platform to remove the digital replica and make reasonable efforts to identify and remove any known identical copies. The act would authorize a city attorney or the Attorney General to bring a civil action to enforce these provisions and to seek a specified civil penalty and injunctive relief. The act would require a generative AI tool provider to maintain, for no less than 90 days, records sufficient to allow compliance with a court order issued pursuant to a civil action by the city attorney or Attorney General, as prescribed.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Digital Dignity Act.

SEC. 2.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(1) The rapid advancement and widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence technologies have enabled the creation of highly realistic, computer-generated depictions of an individual’s voice and likeness, hereinafter referred to as “digital replicas.”

(2) While these technologies offer significant benefits in fields such as entertainment, accessibility, and personal expression, they also create unprecedented opportunities for misuse that can inflict severe personal, reputational, and economic harm upon the residents of this state.

(3) Documented harms include the use of digital replicas to create nonconsensual intimate imagery, to perpetrate financial fraud against individuals and businesses, to create false endorsements, to defame and harass individuals, and to deceive the public through fraudulent impersonation. The economic cost of such fraud to businesses averages hundreds of thousands of dollars per incident.

(4) Every individual possesses a right to control the use protect against the misappropriation of their own identity, likeness, which is a matter of both personal dignity and economic value. The unauthorized appropriation of this identity through a digital replica constitutes a significant harm that current laws may not adequately address.

(5) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide the residents of this state with clear and robust legal tools to protect themselves from the unauthorized and harmful use of their digital likeness and voice.

(b) The purpose of this act is to establish a balanced framework that does all of the following:

(1) Protects the rights of individuals to control the use of their identity in the form of a digital replica.

(2) Provides effective civil remedies for individuals harmed by the unauthorized use of their digital replica.

(3) Imposes reasonable obligations on the providers of generative artificial intelligence tools to promote transparency and prevent misuse.

(4) Establishes criminal penalties for the most egregious forms of misuse, particularly the creation of nonconsensual intimate imagery.

(5) Safeguards the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression by providing clear exemptions for news reporting, commentary, parody, satire, and other expressive works.

SEC. 3.

Chapter 22.6.1 (commencing with Section 22650) is added to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, to read:

CHAPTER 22.6.1 Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools: Digital Replicas

22650.

For purposes of this chapter:

(a) “Digital replica” has the same meaning as defined in Section 3344.1 of the Civil Code.

(b) “Generative artificial intelligence” or “generative AI” has the same meaning as defined in Section 3110 of the Civil Code.

(c) “Generative AI tool” means a generative AI system that is capable of creating digital replicas and publicly accessible within the geographic boundaries of the state.

(d) “Individual” means a natural person, whether living or deceased.

(e) “Large online platform” has the same meaning as defined in Section 22757.1.

(f) “Nonconsensual intimate images” has the same meaning as “covered material” in Section 22670.

(g) “Provenance data” has the same meaning as defined in Section 22757.1.

(h) “Voice” means the actual or simulated sound of an individual’s voice that is recognizable as the voice of that individual.

22651.

(a) The terms of service for any generative AI tool shall explicitly prohibit users from creating content that violates the Digital Dignity Act, including the creation of nonconsensual intimate images. A generative AI tool provider satisfies this requirement if its terms of service contain a general prohibition on the creation of unauthorized digital replicas or the unlawful use of an individual’s likeness.

(b) A generative AI tool provider shall maintain, for no less than 90 days, records sufficient to allow compliance with a court order issued pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (g), including records identifying any provenance data associated with a digital replica, if the records do not include the content of user communications.

(c) (1) A product, service, internet website, or application that is both a generative AI tool and a large online platform that allows users to create a digital replica of other individuals shall implement and maintain a mechanism by which users can revoke access to their digital replica, or remove any photograph, video, audio recording, or other digital rendering that includes their digital replica created by other people using the large online platform’s generative AI tool at any time, and shall allow users to remove videos containing their digital replica created by other people using the large online platform’s generative AI tool at any time.

(2) This subdivision does not require a product, service, internet website, or application that is both a large online platform and a generative AI tool that allows users to create a digital replica to provide access to content that is generated and stored exclusively on a user’s local device and that has not been transmitted to the product’s, service’s, internet website’s, or application’s servers.

(d) A large online platform that includes a generative AI tool that provides users with the functionality to create a digital replica of other individuals shall provide a clear, conspicuous, and easy-to-use reporting mechanism for a user to report a digital replica that violates the Digital Dignity Act, an individual, regardless of whether or not the individual depicted is a user of the generative AI tool or large online platform. platform, to do both of the following:

(1) Report content that violates the platform’s terms of service or a provision of law relating to the individual’s digital replica. A process established pursuant to Section 223a of Title 47 of the United States Code shall satisfy the requirement of this paragraph, provided that the process allows an individual to report any violation of the terms of service or provision of law.(2) Submit to the large online platform any certified court order or judgment, including an injunction awarded pursuant to Section 527 of the Code of Civil Procedure, ordering the removal of any content involving the individual’s digital replica on the platform or finding that content involving the individual’s digital replica was defamatory, fraudulent, or any other form of image appropriation not permitted by law.

(e)To prevent unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the administration of the reporting mechanisms required by subdivision (d), a large online platform shall maintain a reporting process that ensures within 48 hours of receiving a user report all of the following:

(1)Reports of unauthorized digital replicas are reviewed.

(2)If the content violates the Digital Dignity Act, access to the content is removed or disabled.

(3)The reporting party is provided with a confirmation of the removal or, if the content was not removed, a written explanation of the reason.

(f)A platform’s systemic failure to adhere to these timelines and process valid reports in good faith constitutes a violation of this section.

(e) Upon receipt of a court order or judgment pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d), the large online platform shall, as soon as possible, but not later than 48 hours after receiving the court order or judgment, remove the digital replica and make reasonable efforts to identify and remove any known identical copies of the depiction.

(g)

(f) (1) A city attorney or the Attorney General may bring a civil action to enforce this chapter and may seek a civil penalty not to exceed fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for each day a generative AI tool is provided to the public in violation of this chapter.

(2) A city attorney or the Attorney General may seek an injunction or temporary restraining order pursuant to Section 527 of the Code of Civil Procedure. If the court grants the applicant an order under subdivision (c) of Section 527 of the Code of Civil Procedure that requires the respondent to remove, recall, or otherwise cease the publication or distribution of the petitioner’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, digital replica, the respondent shall complete the removal or recall, or cease the publication or distribution, within two business days from the day the order is served, unless otherwise required by the order.

SEC. 4.

Section 3344.2 is added to the Civil Code, to read:

3344.2.

(a) Any person that, by distributing content with actual knowledge that the content includes the use of a digital replica, is found liable in a civil action for defamation arising from the use or portrayal through a digital replica or violates that is found guilty of violating a provision of the Penal Code in for which false impersonation of another is a required element, including, without limitation, Sections 528.5, 529, and 530 of the Penal Code, shall also be liable for the greater of the following:

(1) If an individual or entity negligently distributes, liquidated damages of one thousand dollars ($1,000) or actual damages for each violation.

(2) If a violation was committed by an individual or entity with knowledge of, or reckless disregard for, the rights of the individual, the court may, in its discretion, award not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each violation.

(b) In addition to the remedies available in subdivision (a), a party may seek an injunction or temporary restraining order pursuant to Section 527 of the Code of Civil Procedure. If the court grants the applicant an order under subdivision (c) of Section 527 of the Code of Civil Procedure that requires the respondent to remove, recall, or otherwise cease the publication or distribution of the petitioner’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness, digital replica, the respondent shall complete the removal or recall, or cease the publication or distribution, within two business days from the day the order is served, unless otherwise required by the order.

(c)The remedies under subdivision (a) shall apply until 70 years after the year of the imitated person’s death.

(d)

(c) (1) The rights recognized under this section are property rights, freely transferable or descendible, in whole or in part, by contract, by means of a trust, or pursuant to Section 3344.1.

(2) This section shall not be construed to render invalid or unenforceable a contract entered into by a living person that assigned the rights, in whole or in part, to use the living person’s name, voice, signature, photograph, or likeness.

(e)For purposes of this section, a digital replica may be used without consent if

(d) This section shall not be construed to affect or limit any defenses available in the underlying civil or criminal action, including, but not limited to, that the use of the digital replica meets the conditions of subdivision (j) of Section 3344.1 or any of the criteria of clause (ii) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 3344.1.

(f)

(e) This section shall apply to the adjudication of liability and the imposition of any damages or other remedies in cases in which the liability, damages, and other remedies arise from acts occurring directly in this state.

(g)

(f) (1) The remedies provided for in this section are cumulative and shall be in addition to any others provided for by law.

(2) This section shall not be construed to conflict with or preempt federal law or regulation. This section does not impose liability on a social media platform if that liability is prohibited by Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code.

SEC. 5.

The provisions of this act are severable. If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.