Amended  IN  Senate  May 02, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  April 22, 2024
Amended  IN  Senate  March 20, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 981

Introduced by Senator Wahab

January 29, 2024

An act to add Chapter 22.7 (commencing with Section 22670) to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to social media platforms.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 981, as amended, Wahab. Sexually explicit digital images.
Existing law generally regulates social media platforms, including by requiring a social media platform to provide, in a mechanism that is reasonably accessible to users, a means for a user who is a California resident to report material to the social media platform that the user reasonably believes is, among other things, child sexual abuse material.
This bill would require a social media platform to provide a mechanism that is reasonably accessible to a natural person located within California to report digital identify theft to the social media platform. The bill would define “digital identity theft” to mean the posting of covered material on a social media platform and would define “covered material” to mean material that a reporting person reasonably believes meets certain criteria, including that the material is an image or video created or altered through digitization that would appear to a reasonable person to be an image or video of an intimate body part of an identifiable person or an identifiable person engaged in certain sexual acts, and that the reporting person identifies themselves as the person depicted, as specified. is the person depicted in the material and did not consent to the use of the reporting person’s likeness in the material. The bill would also require a social media platform to permanently block a reported instance of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform, as prescribed, and to make reasonable efforts to remove and block unreported instances of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform. platform if the social media platform determines there is a reasonable basis to believe the reported digital identity theft is digital identity theft, as prescribed. The bill would also require a social media platform to make reasonable efforts to remove and block unreported instances of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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


SECTION 1.

 Chapter 22.7 (commencing with Section 22670) is added to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code, to read:
CHAPTER  22.7. Sexually Explicit Digital Images

22670.
 (a) “Covered material” means material that a reporting person reasonably believes meets all of the following criteria:
(1) The material is an image or video created or altered through digitization that would appear to a reasonable person to be an image or video of any of the following:
(A) An intimate body part of an identifiable person.
(B) An identifiable person engaged in an act of sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration.
(C) An identifiable person engaged in masturbation.
(2) The reporting person identifies the reporting person as is the person depicted in the material material, and confirms that the reporting person did not consent to the use of the reporting person’s likeness in the material.
(3) The material is displayed, stored, or hosted on the social media platform.
(b) “Digital identity theft” means the posting of covered material on a social media platform.
(c) “Reporting person” means a natural person located within the geographic boundaries of the state who reports material to a social media platform using the mechanism provided by the social media platform pursuant to Section 22671.
(d) (1) “Social media platform” has, except as provided in paragraph (2), the same meaning as defined in Section 22675.
(2) “Social media platform” does not include either of the following:
(A) A stand-alone direct messaging service that provides end-to-end encrypted communication or the portion of a multiservice platform that uses end-to-end encrypted communication.
(B) An internet-based service or application owned or operated by a nonprofit organization exempt from federal income tax pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

22671.
 A social media platform shall do all of the following:
(a) Provide a mechanism that is reasonably accessible to reporting persons to report digital identity theft to the social media platform.
(b) Collect information reasonably sufficient to enable the social media platform to locate the instance of digital identity theft and to contact a reporting person with both of the following:
(1) Confirmation that the social media platform received the reporting person’s report within 48 hours of receipt of the report.
(2) Within seven days of the date on which the confirmation required by paragraph (1) is issued, a written update to the reporting person as to the status of the social media platform’s handling of the reported digital identity theft.
(c) Determine within 14 days of the date on which the confirmation required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) is issued whether there is a reasonable basis to believe that the reported digital identity theft is digital identity theft.
(d) (1) Temporarily block a reported instance of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform pending a determination pursuant to subdivision (c).
(2) Permanently block an a reported instance of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform. platform if the social media platform determines there is a reasonable basis to believe the reported digital identity theft is digital identity theft.
(e) Make reasonable efforts to remove and block unreported instances of digital identity theft from being publicly viewable on the social media platform.