II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4983 

To amend chapter 77 of title 18, United States Code, to combat human 

trafficking and to strengthen civil remedies for survivors. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 9, 2020 

Mr. HAWLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend chapter 77 of title 18, United States Code, to 

combat human trafficking and to strengthen civil remedies for survivors. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Survivors of Human 

5 Trafficking Fight Back Act of 2020’’. 

6 SEC. 2. VISUAL DEPICTIONS OF SEX ACTS OBTAINED BY CO7 ERCION OR DECEPTION. 

8 Section 1591 of title 18, United States Code, is 

9 amended— 


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1 (1) by striking ‘‘subsection (e)(2)’’ each place it 

2 appears and inserting ‘‘subsection (g)(2)’’; 

3 (2) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub4 section (g); 

5 (3) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol6 lowing: 

7 ‘‘(e)(1)(A) Whoever knowingly distributes, or pos8 sesses with the intent to distribute, in or affecting inter9 state or foreign commerce or using a means of interstate 

10 or foreign commerce (including the internet), a visual de11 piction of a sex act by another person who is not less than 

12 18 years of age, knowing or in reckless disregard of the 

13 fact that the participation of that person in the sex act 

14 was induced by fraud, force, threats of force, deception, 

15 or coercion described in subsection (g)(2), or any combina16 tion of such means, shall be punished as provided in para17 graph (4). 

18 ‘‘(B) Whoever knowingly distributes, or possesses 

19 with the intent to distribute, in or affecting interstate or 

20 foreign commerce or using a means of interstate or foreign 

21 commerce (including the internet), a visual depiction of 

22 a sex act by another person or a visual depiction of an23 other person the production of which involved conduct that 

24 would violate section 1801(a), knowing or in reckless dis25 regard of the fact that the person did not consent to the 


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1 distribution of the visual depiction, shall be punished as 

2 provided in paragraph (4). 

3 ‘‘(2) Nothing in paragraph (1) shall be construed to 

4 limit the ability to prosecute under subsection (a) of this 

5 section or chapter 110 an offense involving a victim of an 

6 offense described in paragraph (1) of this subsection who 

7 is less than 18 years of age. 

8 ‘‘(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply to any distribu9 tion made in the public interest, including distributions 

10 that constitute a matter of public concern or distributions 

11 that are made as part of a lawful, common practice, such 

12 as legal proceedings, reports to law enforcement, or med13 ical treatment. 

14 ‘‘(4) Whoever violates paragraph (1) shall be fined 

15 under this title and imprisoned for any term of years not 

16 less than 5. 

17 ‘‘(5)(A)(i) Any person who operates or provides an 

18 internet website, web service, or web application that dis19 plays visual depictions of sex acts shall— 

20 ‘‘(I) provide a notice process described in sub21 paragraph (B) for individuals to make the person 

22 aware that the person is distributing content created 

23 in violation of this section; and 

24 ‘‘(II) designate an agent of the person to re25 ceive notice under such a notice process and make 


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1 available on the website, web service, or web applica2 tion operated or provided by the person, in a loca3 tion accessible to the public, the name, address, 

4 phone number, and electronic mail address of the 

5 agent. 

6 ‘‘(ii) Any person who violates subclause (I) or (II) 

7 of clause (i) shall be punished as provided in subparagraph 

8 (C). 

9 ‘‘(B) A notice process described in this subparagraph 

10 is an operation that readily enables a person depicted or 

11 authorized representative of the person depicted to provide 

12 to the designated agent substantially the following: 

13 ‘‘(i) Identification of the visual depiction or de14 pictions claimed to include a sex act, or for which 

15 the production is claimed to involved conduct that 

16 would violate section 1801(a), that meets the re17 quirements of paragraph (1). 

18 ‘‘(ii) Identification of the sex act in the visual 

19 depiction, or the portion of the visual depiction the 

20 production of which involved conduct that would vio21 late section 1801(a), that meets the requirements of 

22 paragraph (1). 

23 ‘‘(iii) Information reasonably sufficient to per24 mit the person receiving the notice to contact the 

25 person depicted or authorized representative of that 


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1 person, such as an address, telephone number, or 

2 electronic mail address. 

3 ‘‘(iv) A brief statement— 

4 ‘‘(I) that the person depicted or authorized 

5 representative of that person has a good faith 

6 belief that the visual depiction includes a sex 

7 act involving the person depicted, or the pro8 duction of the visual depiction involved conduct 

9 that would violate section 1801(a), that meets 

10 the requirements of paragraph (1); and 

11 ‘‘(II) why the person depicted or author12 ized representative of that person has that be13 lief. 

14 ‘‘(C) Whoever violates subparagraph (A) shall be 

15 fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 3 

16 years, or both. 

17 ‘‘(D) A person operating or providing an internet 

18 website, web service, or web application shall not be liable 

19 to any other person for any claim based on the operator 

20 or provider’s good faith disabling of access to, or removal 

21 of, material the operator or provider believes includes a 

22 sex act, or believes the production of which involved con23 duct that would violate section 1801(a), meeting the re24 quirements of paragraph (1). 


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1 ‘‘(6) It shall not be a defense to an alleged violation 

2 of paragraph (1) that a person did not receive notice under 

3 the notice process described in paragraph (5)(B). 

4 ‘‘(7) For purposes of this subsection, the term ‘sex 

5 act’ means— 

6 ‘‘(A) sexually explicit conduct, as defined in sec7 tion 2256(2)(A); 

8 ‘‘(B) a sexual act, as defined in section 

9 2246(2); and 

10 ‘‘(C) the lascivious exhibition of the post-pubes11 cent female nipple or gametes on the body. 

12 ‘‘(f)(1) An individual who is aggrieved of a violation 

13 of subsection (e)(1) may bring a civil action in an appro14 priate district court of the United States seeking appro15 priate relief. 

16 ‘‘(2) Whoever violates the civil law of a State, terri17 tory, or Indian Tribe by coercing an individual into par18 ticipating in a sex act shall be liable under Federal law 

19 for such a violation and subject to the same civil remedies 

20 that would be available under State, territorial, or Tribal 

21 law to the party injured if— 

22 ‘‘(A) the sex act is a commercial sex act that 

23 occurred in or affecting interstate or foreign com24 merce; or 


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1 ‘‘(B) a visual depiction of the sex act is distrib2 uted by the defendant in or affecting interstate or 

3 foreign commerce or using a means of interstate or 

4 foreign commerce (including the internet), knowing 

5 or in reckless disregard of the fact that the indi6 vidual was coerced into participating in the sex act 

7 depicted. 

8 ‘‘(3) In this subsection— 

9 ‘‘(A) the terms ‘coercing an individual into par10 ticipating in a sex act’ and ‘coerced into partici11 pating in a sex act’, with respect to an individual, 

12 means the individual was induced by force, threats 

13 of force, fraud, deception, or coercion (as those 

14 terms are defined under the law of the applicable 

15 State, territory, or Tribe) to participate in a sex act; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(B) the term ‘sex act’ has the meaning given 

18 that term in subsection (e).’’; and 

19 (4) in subsection (g), as so redesignated— 

20 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), 

21 and (6) as paragraphs (5), (6), and (7), respec22 tively; and 

23 (B) by inserting after paragraph (3) the 

24 following: 


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1 ‘‘(4) The term ‘deception’ means intentionally 

2 misleading a participant in a sex act about whether 

3 a visual depiction of the sex act will be created or 

4 about whether or how broadly a visual depiction will 

5 be distributed.’’. 

6 SEC. 3. SEVERABILITY. 

7 If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 

8 by this Act, or any application of such provision or amend9 ment to any person or circumstance, is held to be uncon10 stitutional or otherwise unlawful, the remainder of the 

11 provisions of this Act and the amendments made by this 

12 Act, and the application of the provision or amendment 

13 to any other person or circumstance, shall not be affected. 

Æ 


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