II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4674 

To require transparency with respect to content and content provenance 

information, to protect artistic content, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 11 (legislative day, JULY 10), 2024 

Ms. CANTWELL (for herself, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To require transparency with respect to content and content 

provenance information, to protect artistic content, and 

for other purposes. 

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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Content Origin Protec5 tion and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act 

6 of 2024’’. 

7 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

8 It is the sense of Congress that— 

9 (1) there is a lack of— 


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1 (A) visibility into how artificial intelligence 

2 systems work; 

3 (B) transparency regarding the informa4 tion used to train such systems; and 

5 (C) consensus-based standards and prac6 tices to guide the development and deployment 

7 of such systems; 

8 (2) it is becoming increasingly difficult to as9 sess the nature, origins, and authenticity of digital 

10 content that has been generated or modified 

11 algorithmically; 

12 (3) these deficiencies negatively impact the pub13 lic and, particularly, the journalists, publishers, 

14 broadcasters, and artists whose content is used to 

15 train these systems and is manipulated to produce 

16 synthetic content and synthetically-modified content 

17 that competes unfairly in the digital marketplace 

18 with covered content; and 

19 (4) the development and adoption of consensus20 based standards would mitigate these impacts, cata21 lyze innovation in this nascent industry, and put the 

22 United States in a position to lead the development 

23 of artificial intelligence systems moving forward. 

24 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

25 In this title: 


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1 (1) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar2 tificial intelligence’’ has the meaning given the term 

3 in section 5002 of the National Artificial Intelligence 

4 Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401). 

5 (2) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BLUE6 TEAMING.—The term ‘‘artificial intelligence blue7 teaming’’ means an effort to conduct operational 

8 vulnerability evaluations and provide mitigation 

9 techniques to entities who have a need for an inde10 pendent technical review of the security posture of 

11 an artificial intelligence system. 

12 (3) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE RED13 TEAMING.—The term ‘‘artificial intelligence red14 teaming’’ means structured adversarial testing ef15 forts of an artificial intelligence system to identify 

16 risks, flaws, and vulnerabilities of the artificial intel17 ligence system, such as harmful outputs from the 

18 system, unforeseen or undesirable system behaviors, 

19 limitations, or potential risks associated with the 

20 misuse of the system. 

21 (4) CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION.— 

22 The term ‘‘content provenance information’’ means 

23 state-of-the-art, machine-readable information docu24 menting the origin and history of a piece of digital 

25 content, such as an image, a video, audio, or text. 


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1 (5) COVERED CONTENT.—The term ‘‘covered 

2 content’’ means a digital representation, such as 

3 text, an image, or audio or video content, of any 

4 work of authorship described in section 102 of title 

5 17, United States Code. 

6 (6) COVERED PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘covered 

7 platform’’ means a website, internet application, or 

8 mobile application available to users in the United 

9 States, including a social networking site, video 

10 sharing service, search engine, or content aggrega11 tion service available to users in the United States, 

12 that either— 

13 (A) generates at least $50,000,000 in an14 nual revenue; or 

15 (B) had at least 25,000,000 monthly active 

16 users for not fewer than 3 of the 12 months im17 mediately preceding any conduct by the covered 

18 platform in violation of this Act. 

19 (7) DEEPFAKE.—The term ‘‘deepfake’’ means 

20 synthetic content or synthetically-modified content 

21 that— 

22 (A) appears authentic to a reasonable per23 son; and 

24 (B) creates a false understanding or im25 pression. 


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1 (8) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

2 the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual 

3 Property and Director of the United States Patent 

4 and Trademark Office. 

5 (9) SYNTHETIC CONTENT.—The term ‘‘syn6 thetic content’’ means information, including works 

7 of human authorship such as images, videos, audio 

8 clips, and text, that has been wholly generated by al9 gorithms, including by artificial intelligence. 

10 (10) SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT.— 

11 The term ‘‘synthetically-modified content’’ means in12 formation, including works of human authorship 

13 such as images, videos, audio clips, and text, that 

14 has been significantly modified by algorithms, in15 cluding by artificial intelligence. 

16 (11) UNDER SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 

17 Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 

18 for Standards and Technology. 

19 (12) WATERMARKING.—The term 

20 ‘‘watermarking’’ means the act of embedding infor21 mation that is intended to be difficult to remove into 

22 an output, including an output such as text, an 

23 image, an audio, a video, software code, or any other 

24 digital content or data, for the purposes of verifying 

25 the authenticity of the output or the identity or 


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1 characteristics of its provenance, modifications, or 

2 conveyance 

3 SEC. 4. FACILITATION OF DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS 

4 FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION 

5 AND DETECTION OF SYNTHETIC CONTENT 

6 AND SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall estab8 lish a public-private partnership to facilitate the develop9 ment of standards regarding content provenance informa10 tion technologies and the detection of synthetic content 

11 and synthetically-modified content, including with respect 

12 to the following: 

13 (1) Facilitating the development of guidelines 

14 and voluntary, consensus-based standards and best 

15 practices for watermarking, content provenance in16 formation, synthetic content and synthetically-modi17 fied content detection, including for images, audio, 

18 video, text, and multimodal content, the use of data 

19 to train artificial intelligence systems, and such 

20 other matters relating to transparency of synthetic 

21 media as the Under Secretary considers appropriate. 

22 (2) Facilitating the development of guidelines, 

23 metrics, and practices to evaluate and assess tools to 

24 detect and label synthetic content, synthetically25 modified content, and non-synthetic content, includVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Aug 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4674.IS S4674

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1 ing artificial intelligence red-teaming and artificial 

2 intelligence blue-teaming. 

3 (3) Establishing grand challenges and prizes in 

4 coordination with the Defense Advanced Research 

5 Projects Agency and the National Science Founda6 tion to detect and label synthetic content, syn7 thetically-modified content, and non-synthetic con8 tent and to develop cybersecurity and other counter9 measures to defend against tampering with detection 

10 tools, watermarks, or content provenance informa11 tion. 

12 (b) CONSULTATION.—In developing the standards de13 scribed in subsection (a), the Under Secretary shall con14 sult with the Register of Copyrights and the Director. 

15 SEC. 5. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECH16 NOLOGY RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND 

17 PUBLIC EDUCATION REGARDING SYNTHETIC 

18 CONTENT AND SYNTHETICALLY-MODIFIED 

19 CONTENT. 

20 (a) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.—The Under 

21 Secretary shall carry out a research program to enable ad22 vances in measurement science, standards, and testing re23 lating to the robustness and efficacy of— 


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1 (1) technologies for synthetic content and syn2 thetically-modified content detection, watermarking, 

3 and content provenance information; and 

4 (2) cybersecurity protections and other counter5 measures used to prevent tampering with such tech6 nologies. 

7 (b) PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGNS REGARDING

8 SYNTHETIC CONTENT.—Not later than 1 year after the 

9 date of enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall, 

10 in consultation with the Register of Copyrights and the 

11 Director, carry out a public education campaign regarding 

12 synthetic content and synthetically-modified content (in13 cluding deepfakes), watermarking, and content provenance 

14 information. 

15 SEC. 6. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONTENT PROVENANCE IN16 FORMATION; PROHIBITED ACTS. 

17 (a) CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION.— 

18 (1) SYNTHETIC CONTENT AND SYN19 THETICALLY-MODIFIED CONTENT.—Beginning on 

20 the date that is 2 years after the date of enactment 

21 of this Act, any person who, for a commercial pur22 pose, makes available in interstate commerce a tool 

23 used for the primary purpose of creating synthetic 

24 content or synthetically-modified content shall— 


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1 (A) taking into consideration the content 

2 provenance information standards established 

3 under section 4, provide users of such tool with 

4 the ability to include content provenance infor5 mation that indicates the piece of digital con6 tent is synthetic content or synthetically-modi7 fied content for any synthetic content or syn8 thetically-modified content created by the tool; 

9 and 

10 (B) in the event a user opts to include con11 tent provenance information under subpara12 graph (A), establish, to the extent technically 

13 feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure 

14 that such content provenance information is 

15 machine-readable and not easily removed, al16 tered, or separated from the underlying content. 

17 (2) COVERED CONTENT.—Beginning on the 

18 date that is 2 years after the date of enactment of 

19 this Act, any person who, for a commercial purpose, 

20 makes available in interstate commerce a tool used 

21 for the primary purpose of creating or substantially 

22 modifying covered content shall— 

23 (A) taking into consideration the content 

24 provenance information standards established 

25 under section 4, provide users of such tool with 


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1 the ability to include content provenance infor2 mation for any covered content created or sig3 nificantly modified by the tool; and 

4 (B) in the event a user opts to include con5 tent provenance information under subpara6 graph (A), establish, to the extent technically 

7 feasible, reasonable security measures to ensure 

8 that such content provenance information is 

9 machine-readable and not easily removed, al10 tered, or separated from the underlying content. 

11 (b) REMOVAL OF CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMA12 TION.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 

14 person to knowingly remove, alter, tamper with, or 

15 disable content provenance information in further16 ance of an unfair or deceptive act or practice in or 

17 affecting commerce. 

18 (2) COVERED PLATFORMS.— 

19 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara20 graph (B), it shall be unlawful for a covered 

21 platform, to remove, alter, tamper with, or dis22 able content provenance information or to sepa23 rate the content provenance information from 

24 the content so that the content provenance inVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Aug 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4674.IS S4674

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1 formation cannot be accessed by users of the 

2 platform. 

3 (B) EXCEPTION FOR SECURITY RE4 SEARCH.—A covered platform shall not be liable 

5 for a violation of subparagraph (A) if such cov6 ered platform removes, alters, tampers with, or 

7 disables content provenance information for a 

8 purpose necessary, proportionate, and limited to 

9 perform research to enhance the security of the 

10 covered platform. 

11 (c) PROHIBITION ON NON-CONSENSUAL USE OF

12 COVERED CONTENT THAT HAS ATTACHED OR ASSOCI13 ATED CONTENT PROVENANCE INFORMATION.—It shall be 

14 unlawful for any person, for a commercial purpose, to 

15 knowingly use any covered content that has content prove16 nance information that is attached to or associated with 

17 such covered content or covered content from which the 

18 person knows or should know that content provenance in19 formation has been removed or separated in violation of 

20 subsection (b), in order to train a system that uses artifi21 cial intelligence or an algorithm or to generate synthetic 

22 content or synthetically-modified content unless such per23 son obtains the express, informed consent of the person 

24 who owns the covered content, and complies with any 

25 terms of use pertaining to the use of such content, includVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:31 Aug 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4674.IS S4674

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1 ing terms regarding compensation for such use, as re2 quired by the owner of copyright in such content. 

3 SEC. 7. ENFORCEMENT. 

4 (a) ENFORCEMENT BY THE COMMISSION.— 

5 (1) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACTS OR PRAC6 TICES.—A violation of this Act or a regulation pro7 mulgated under this Act shall be treated as a viola8 tion of a rule defining an unfair or deceptive act or 

9 practice prescribed under section 18(a)(1)(B) of the 

10 Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 

11 57a(a)(1)(B)). 

12 (2) POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall 

14 enforce this Act in the same manner, by the 

15 same means, and with the same jurisdiction, 

16 powers, and duties as though all applicable 

17 terms and provisions of the Federal Trade 

18 Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.) were in19 corporated into and made a part of this title. 

20 (B) PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES.—Any 

21 person who violates this Act, or a regulation 

22 promulgated under this Act shall be subject to 

23 the penalties and entitled to the privileges and 

24 immunities provided in the Federal Trade Com25 mission Act (15 U.S.C. 41 et seq.). 


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1 (C) AUTHORITY PRESERVED.—Nothing in 

2 this Act shall be construed to limit the author3 ity of the Commission under any other provi4 sion of law. 

5 (b) ENFORCEMENT BY STATES.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the at7 torney general of a State has reason to believe that 

8 an interest of the residents of the State has been or 

9 is threatened or adversely affected by the engage10 ment of any person in a practice that violates this 

11 Act, the attorney general of the State may, as 

12 parens patriae, bring a civil action on behalf of the 

13 residents of the State in an appropriate district 

14 court of the United States to— 

15 (A) enjoin further violation of this Act by 

16 such person; 

17 (B) compel compliance with this Act; 

18 (C) obtain damages, restitution, or other 

19 compensation on behalf of such residents; and 

20 (D) obtain such other relief as the court 

21 may consider to be appropriate. 

22 (2) RIGHTS OF THE COMMISSION.— 

23 (A) NOTICE TO THE COMMISSION.— 

24 (i) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided 

25 in clause (iii), the attorney general of a 


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1 State shall notify the Commission in writ2 ing that the attorney general intends to 

3 bring a civil action under paragraph (1) 

4 before initiating the civil action. 

5 (ii) CONTENTS.—The notification re6 quired by clause (i) with respect to a civil 

7 action shall include a copy of the complaint 

8 to be filed to initiate the civil action. 

9 (iii) EXCEPTION.—If it is not feasible 

10 for the attorney general of a State to pro11 vide the notification required by clause (i) 

12 before initiating a civil action under para13 graph (1), the attorney general shall notify 

14 the Commission immediately upon insti15 tuting the civil action. 

16 (B) INTERVENTION BY THE COMMIS17 SION.—The Commission may— 

18 (i) intervene in any civil action 

19 brought by the attorney general of a State 

20 under paragraph (1); and 

21 (ii) upon intervening— 

22 (I) be heard on all matters aris23 ing in the civil action; and 

24 (II) file petitions for appeal of a 

25 decision in the civil action. 


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1 (3) INVESTIGATORY POWERS.—Nothing in this 

2 subsection may be construed to prevent the attorney 

3 general of a State from exercising the powers con4 ferred on the attorney general by the laws of the 

5 State to conduct investigations, to administer oaths 

6 or affirmations, or to compel the attendance of wit7 nesses or the production of documentary or other 

8 evidence. 

9 (4) ACTION BY THE COMMISSION.—If the Com10 mission institutes a civil action or an administrative 

11 action with respect to a violation of this Act, the at12 torney general of a State may not, during the pend13 ency of such action, bring a civil action under para14 graph (1) against any defendant named in the com15 plaint of the Commission for the violation with re16 spect to which the Commission instituted such ac17 tion. 

18 (5) VENUE; SERVICE OR PROCESS.— 

19 (A) VENUE.—Any action brought under 

20 paragraph (1) may be brought in— 

21 (i) the district court of the United 

22 States that meets applicable requirements 

23 relating to venue under section 1391 of 

24 title 28, United States Code; or 


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1 (ii) another court of competent juris2 diction. 

3 (B) SERVICE OF PROCESS.—In an action 

4 brought under paragraph (1), process may be 

5 served in any district in which the defendant— 

6 (i) is an inhabitant; or 

7 (ii) may be found. 

8 (6) ACTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFICIALS.— 

9 (A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to civil ac10 tions brought by attorneys general under para11 graph (1), any other officer of a State who is 

12 authorized by the State to do so may bring a 

13 civil action under paragraph (1), subject to the 

14 same requirements and limitations that apply 

15 under this subsection to civil actions brought by 

16 attorneys general. 

17 (B) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this 

18 subsection may be construed to prohibit an au19 thorized official of a State from initiating or 

20 continuing any proceeding in a court of the 

21 State for a violation of any civil or criminal law 

22 of the State. 

23 (7) DAMAGES.—If a person brings a civil action 

24 for a violation of this Act pursuant to subsection (c) 

25 and receives any monetary damages, the court shall 


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1 reduce the amount of any damages awarded under 

2 this subsection by the amount of monetary damages 

3 awarded to such person. 

4 (c) ENFORCEMENT BY PRIVATE PARTIES AND GOV5 ERNMENT ENTITIES.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any person who owns cov7 ered content that has content provenance informa8 tion that is attached to or associated with such cov9 ered content may bring a civil action in a court of 

10 competent jurisdiction against— 

11 (A) any person or covered platform for re12 moving, altering, tampering with, or disabling 

13 such content provenance information in viola14 tion of subsection (b)(1) or (b)(2) of section 6; 

15 and 

16 (B) any person for using such covered con17 tent in violation of section 6(c). 

18 (2) RELIEF.—In a civil action brought under 

19 paragraph (1) in which the plaintiff prevails, the 

20 court may award the plaintiff declaratory or injunc21 tive relief, compensatory damages, and reasonable 

22 litigation expenses, including a reasonable attorney’s 

23 fee. 

24 (3) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—An action for 

25 a violation of this Act brought under this subsection 


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1 may be commenced not later than 4 years after the 

2 date upon which the plaintiff discovers or should 

3 have discovered the facts giving rise to such viola4 tion. 

5 SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 

6 This Act does not impair or in any way alter the 

7 rights of copyright owners under any other applicable law. 

8 SEC. 9. SEVERABILITY. 

9 If any provision of this Act, or an amendment made 

10 by this Act, is determined to be unenforceable or invalid, 

11 the remaining provisions of this Act and the amendments 

12 made by this Act shall not be affected. 

Æ 


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