SB 568 — An Act providing for the removal of nonconsenting intimate depictions from social media platforms.

PRINTER'S NO.    557

                   THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                       SENATE BILL
                       No. 568
                                               Session of
                                                 2025

     INTRODUCED BY PENNYCUICK, HAYWOOD, J. WARD, FONTANA, DUSH,
        LAUGHLIN AND STEFANO, APRIL 4, 2025

     REFERRED TO COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY, APRIL 4, 2025


                                     AN ACT
 1   Providing for the removal of nonconsenting intimate depictions
 2      from social media platforms.
 3      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
 4   hereby enacts as follows:
 5   Section 1.   Short title.
 6      This act shall be known and may be cited as the Notice and
 7   Removal of Nonconsenting Intimate Depictions Act.
 8   Section 2.   Definitions.
 9      The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
10   have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
11   context clearly indicates otherwise:
12      "Affected individual."   An individual who resides in this
13   Commonwealth and has unauthorized or nonconsenting images of
14   themselves in a state of nudity, undress or engaged in sexual
15   conduct, as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 5903(e)(3) (relating to
16   obscene and other sexual materials and performances).
17      "Covered online platform."    A public or semipublic Internet
18   website, Internet-based service, social media platform,
 1   application or mobile application that primarily provides a
 2   forum for user-generated content, including messages, videos,
 3   images, games and audio files.
 4      "Depiction."      A visual depiction or artificially generated
 5   sexual depiction, as defined in 18 Pa.C.S. § 3131(g) (relating
 6   to unlawful dissemination of intimate image).
 7      "Social media platform."      A public or semipublic Internet-
 8   based service or application that has users in this Commonwealth
 9   and that meets all of the following criteria:
10          (1)   A substantial function of the service or application
11      is to connect users in order to allow users to interact
12      socially with each other within the service or application.
13          (2)   The service or application allows users to do all of
14      the following:
15                (i)    Construct a public or semipublic profile for
16          purposes of signing into and using the service or
17          application.
18                (ii)    Populate a list of other users with whom an
19          individual shares a social connection within the system.
20                (iii)    Create or post content viewable by other
21          users, including on message boards, in chat rooms or
22          through a landing page or main feed that presents the
23          user with content generated by other users.
24   Section 3.   Notification and removal.
25      Upon notification from an affected individual, legal
26   representative or an affected individual's parent or legal
27   guardian, a covered online platform shall remove the reported
28   depiction within 48 hours and make reasonable efforts to
29   identify and remove each known identical copy of the depiction.
30   A covered online platform shall:

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 1          (1)   Have an Internet website for affected individuals to
 2      submit notification and request a depiction to be removed.
 3          (2)   Provide on the platform a clear and conspicuous
 4      notice of the Internet website described in paragraph (1) for
 5      notification as described under paragraph (1).
 6          (3)   Not be liable for any claim based on the covered
 7      platform's good faith disabling of access to, or removal of,
 8      material claimed to be a nonconsensual intimate visual
 9      depiction based on facts or circumstances from which the
10      unlawful publishing of an intimate visual depiction is
11      apparent, regardless of whether the intimate visual depiction
12      is ultimately determined to be unlawful or not. It shall be a
13      defense that the covered online platform made all reasonable
14      attempts to remove the depiction as technology allows.
15   Section 4.   Applicability.
16      An Internet service provider, a service or an application
17   that provides email or direct messaging services or cloud
18   computing shall not be considered to be a covered online
19   platform solely on the basis of that function.
20   Section 5.   Effective date.
21      This act shall take effect in 90 days.




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