WASHINGTON — The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would allow individuals to sue over nonconsensual intimate depictions of them that were generated by artificial intelligence.

The bill’s passage comes in the wake of intense criticism of Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter, for allowing the Grok AI chatbot to generate sexualized images of real people, including children.

The bipartisan bill would also allow for suits for possession or production of deepfake porn if there was also intent to disclose the images. The bill is known as the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits, or DEFIANCE Act.

Bill sponsor Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., who sought and won unanimous consent to pass the bipartisan bill without a roll call vote, said it would give victims of explicit deepfakes “the tools to fight back against those who would exploit them.”

He also said the bill would build on the passage of a law last year that made it a federal crime to knowingly publish nonconsensual intimate imagery of other persons, including such imagery generated by artificial intelligence, known as the Take it Down Act.

“Imagine losing control of your own likeness and identity. Imagine that happening to you when you were in high school. Imagine how powerless victims feel when they cannot remove illicit content, cannot prevent it from being reproduced repeatedly, and cannot prevent new images from being created. The consequences can be profound,” Durbin said on the Senate floor.

Durbin expressed concern that even after reporting exposed the use of Grok to create nonconsensual deepfakes, X did not prevent the bot from creating the “exploitive images.” After the backlash, X limited the capability to edit images to paid subscribers.

“That’s why this legislation is critical,” Durbin said, in order to hold X accountable. “This legislation says if they are guilty of such reckless misconduct, that they can be sued for it and held civilly liable for the damages.”

Durbin, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was joined in backing the bill by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and seven others: Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Angus King, I-Maine; Mike Lee, R-Utah; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Peter Welch, D-Vt.; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

The Senate passed a similar bill in 2024, but it did not receive a vote in the House.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is the sponsor of companion bipartisan legislation in the House that she introduced last May. That bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it has not received a markup. In a statement announcing the bill’s introduction, she said it would “provide victims with the federal protections they deserve.”

She told reporters Tuesday that she’s “deeply encouraged” by the building of “bipartisan consensus around … trying to protect all sorts of people, especially children and victims of sexual assault, from nonconsensual, deepfake AI pornography.” She added, “My belief is that we’ll be able to have some conversations” with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

The bill is part of a larger congressional push to protect children online, including in their use of AI chatbots or in cases of online sexual exploitation.

Durbin said late last year that he would support bills that Senate Judiciary Chair Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said would update sentencing guidelines for cases of child sexual abuse material, apply the law related to such materials to cases of sexual extortion of children, and make it a crime to coerce children online into violent acts.

The House on Monday by voice vote passed three bills intended to tighten protections against child sexual abuse materials and extortion online.

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