Bill Text: NJ A4479 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires social media platforms to cooperate with nonprofit organization initiatives to remove nonconsensual intimate images or videos.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-06 - Reported and Referred to Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee [A4479 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4479-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CHRIS TULLY
District 38 (Bergen)
SYNOPSIS
Requires social media platforms to cooperate with nonprofit organization initiatives to remove nonconsensual intimate images or videos.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning social media platforms cooperating with certain nonprofit organization initiatives and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Millions of Americans have reported being victims of the sharing of nonconsensual intimates images or videos, commonly referred to as "revenge porn," with that number continuing to grow in recent years. Victims often struggle to find methods to remove this type of content from social media platforms and may even face further victimization if the images or videos resurface years later.
b. Despite legislative efforts to penalize the distribution of nonconsensual intimate images or videos, the sharing of nonconsensual intimate images and videos continues to affect many New Jersey residents, including minors, especially with the continued and increased use of social media platforms.
c. Additionally, with the rise of artificial intelligence-generated images, more New Jersey residents may be affected by the sharing of nonconsensual intimate representations of themselves through deceptive audio or visual media.
d. In addition to legislative efforts, organizations, like StopNCII.org and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Take It Down initiative, work to remove all types of nonconsensual intimate images from social media platforms.
e. To date, coordination between social media companies and these organizations is voluntary and some social media companies do not cooperate. P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) mandates that social media companies shall cooperate with nonprofit organizations that work to remove nonconsensual images or videos of individuals.
2. As used in P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"Deceptive audio or visual media" means any video recording, motion picture film, sound recording, electronic image, photograph, or any technological representation of speech or conduct substantially derivative thereof, that appears to a reasonable person to realistically depict any speech or conduct of a person who did not in fact engage in the speech or conduct, and the production of which was substantially dependent upon technical means, rather than the ability of another person to physically or verbally impersonate the person.
"Disclose" means to sell, manufacture, give, provide, lend, trade, mail, deliver, transfer, publish, distribute, circulate, disseminate, present, exhibit, advertise, offer, share, or make available via the Internet or by any other means, whether for pecuniary gain or not.
"Individual" means any natural person.
"Intimate images or videos" means images or videos that depict intimate parts, sexual penetration, or sexual contact, as those terms are defined in N.J.S.2C:14-1, in any manner in which such objects or acts are not completely and opaquely covered.
"Minor" means an individual under the age of 18.
"Nonprofit organization" means the same as described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and which are exempt from income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code.
"Social media company" means a person or entity that provides or operates a social media platform with at least five million account holders worldwide.
"Social media platform" means a public or semi-public Internet-based service or application that has account holders in this State, which service or application: allows account holders to construct a public or semi-public profile for the purposes of using the platform, populate a list of other account holders with whom the account holder shares a social connection through the platform, and post content viewable by other account holders or users of the platform; and is designed to connect account holders within the platform to facilitate social interactions, except that a service or application that provides email or direct messaging services shall not be considered to meet this criterion solely based on the existence of that functionality. "Social media platform" shall not include "news media" as defined in section 2 of P.L.1977, c.253 (C.2A:84A-21a).
"Video" means a recording of an image or of moving images in which an individual is readily identifiable, and which recording may be prerecorded or recorded online, or may be an online live video transmission or a live television transmission.
3. a. A social media company shall cooperate with any nonprofit organization that seeks to remove the nonconsensual intimate images or videos, including any intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media, of any non-consenting individual from the social media platform.
b. Each social media company shall establish and implement procedures to assist nonprofit organizations in monitoring, flagging, and requesting the removal of nonconsensual intimate images or videos, including any intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media, that are disclosed on a social media platform. Upon receiving a request to remove any nonconsensual intimate images or videos, the social media company shall immediately remove the flagged material from the social media platform until a thorough review has been completed and the social media company has determined that the intimate images or videos were consensual.
c. An intimate image or video shall be considered nonconsensual when:
(1) an individual in the intimate image or video did not give express consent for the image or video to be taken, recorded, or disclosed; or
(2) an individual who is depicted in an intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media did not give express consent for the image or video to be created or disclosed.
d. An intimate image or video shall be considered nonconsensual whenever the image or video is disclosed if:
(1) an individual depicted in an intimate image or video was a minor when the image or video was taken or recorded; or
(2) an individual depicted in an intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media is depicted as a minor or is a minor when the image or video was created or disclosed.
4. a. Any person who violates any of the provisions of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) shall, in addition to any other penalty provided by law, be liable to a penalty of not more than $10,000 for the first offense and not more than $20,000 for the second and each subsequent offense.
b. Any penalty imposed pursuant to this section may be collected, with costs, in a summary proceeding pursuant to the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.). The Superior Court and the municipal court shall have jurisdiction to enforce the provisions of the "Penalty Enforcement Law of 1999," P.L.1999, c.274 (C.2A:58-10 et seq.), in connection with P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
5. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires social media companies to cooperate with nonprofit organization initiatives to remove nonconsensual intimate images or videos, including any intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media, from the social media company's social media platform.
Under the bill, intimate images or videos are defined to include images or videos that depict intimate body parts, sexual penetration, or sexual contact in any manner in which such objects or acts are not completely and opaquely covered. An intimate image or video would be considered nonconsensual when the individual in the image or video did not give express consent for the image or video to be taken, recorded, or disclosed. Additionally, if an intimate image or video depicts a minor, the intimate image or video would be considered nonconsensual whenever the image or video is disclosed. In the event the image is a work of deceptive audio or visual media, it is considered nonconsensual when an individual who is depicted in the media did not give express consent for the image or video to be created or disclosed. If the individual depicted in the intimate image or video of deceptive audio or visual media is depicted as a minor or is a minor when the image or video was created or disclosed, the deceptive audio or visual media is considered nonconsensual whenever the image or video is disclosed.
Specifically, the bill requires each social media company to establish and implement procedures to assist nonprofit organizations in monitoring, flagging, and removing nonconsensual intimate images that are disclosed on a social media platform. Upon receiving a request to remove any nonconsensual intimate images or videos, the bill requires a social media company to immediately remove the flagged material from the social media platform until a thorough review has been completed and the social media company has determined that the intimate images or videos were consensual.
The bill imposes a civil penalty of $10,000 for a first offense, and $20,000 for a second and each subsequent offense, in addition to any other penalty imposed by law.
