Loading bill breakdown…
S. 1837119th CongressCrime and Law Enforcement
DEFIANCE Act of 2025
Sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) · 8 active : 3 Republicans, 4 Democrats, 1 Independent
Latest action: Held at the desk.
Where it standsBefore the Senate8 senators score as swing votes
Passed Senate
- Senate: passedJan 13, 2026
- House: next
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govDisrupt 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.
Read full summaryHide full summary
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.
How the projections held up
Each member’s recorded vote compared with their swing projection from before the vote. A member by voting against most of their own party.
Senate
Passed by voice vote or unanimous consent: no individual votes recorded.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- Senate Committee on the Judiciary · SenateDischarged from · Referred to
Subjects
- Advanced technology and technological innovations
- Assault and harassment offenses
- Civil actions and liability
- Computer security and identity theft
- Computers and information technology
- Digital media
- Fraud offenses and financial crimes
- Photography and imaging
- Pornography
- Right of privacy
- Sex offenses
Model
Directional: count only breaks toward the other partyWhy do scores change?v3default (selected)v2 model swing-v2
How the Senate breaks down
- 8Swing 70–100
- 61Middle 30–70
- 31Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v3, directional: only movement toward the other party counts, so members who sit further from the center than their party no longer score as swing votes.
Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, , and the . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
8 activeShow all 8 cosponsors
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Angus S. King Jr. (I-ME)
- Charles E. Schumer (D-NY)
- Josh Hawley (R-MO)
- Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
- Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
- Mike Lee (R-UT)
- Peter Welch (D-VT)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
