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[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3504 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3504

To establish a course of education and pilot program on authentication 
 of digital content provenance for certain Department of Defense media 
                    content, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 13, 2023

  Mr. Peters introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To establish a course of education and pilot program on authentication 
 of digital content provenance for certain Department of Defense media 
                    content, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Defense Content Provenance 
Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. COURSE OF EDUCATION AND PILOT PROGRAM ON AUTHENTICATION OF 
              DIGITAL CONTENT PROVENANCE FOR CERTAIN DEPARTMENT OF 
              DEFENSE MEDIA CONTENT.

    (a) Course of Education.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than one year after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, acting 
        through the Director of the Defense Media Activity, shall 
        establish a course of education at the Defense Information 
        School, the purpose of which shall be to provide instruction on 
        the practical concepts and skills needed by public affairs, 
        audiovisual, visual information, and records management 
        specialists to understand the following:
                    (A) Digital content provenance for applicable 
                Department media content.
                    (B) The challenges posed to missions and operations 
                of the Department by a digital content forgery.
                    (C) How industry open technical standards may be 
                used to authenticate the digital content provenance of 
                applicable Department media content.
            (2) Matters.--The course of education under paragraph (1) 
        shall cover the following matters:
                    (A) The challenges to missions and operations of 
                the Department posed by a digital content forgery.
                    (B) The development of industry open technical 
                standards for authenticating the digital content 
                provenance of applicable Department media content.
                    (C) Hands-on training on techniques to record 
                secure and authenticated digital content to document 
                and communicate relevant themes and messages of the 
                Department.
                    (D) Training on--
                            (i) the use of industry open technical 
                        standards for authenticating digital content 
                        provenance in the completion of post-production 
                        tasks; and
                            (ii) the transmission of applicable 
                        Department media content in both operational 
                        and nonoperational environments.
                    (E) Such other matters as the Director of the 
                Defense Media Activity considers appropriate.
            (3) Report.--Not later than one year after the date of the 
        establishment of the course of education under paragraph (1), 
        the Director of the Defense Media Activity shall submit to the 
        Committees on Armed Services of the House of Representatives 
        and the Senate a report on the following:
                    (A) The status of the development of a curriculum 
                for such course of education.
                    (B) The implementation plan of the Director for 
                such course of education, including the following:
                            (i) The expertise and qualifications of the 
                        personnel of the Department responsible for 
                        teaching such course of education.
                            (ii) The list of sources consulted or 
                        otherwise used to develop the curriculum for 
                        such course of education.
                            (iii) A description of the industry open 
                        technical standards referred to in paragraph 
                        (1)(C).
                            (iv) The status of the implementation of 
                        such course of education.
                    (C) The resources available to the Director to 
                carry out this subsection and whether the Director 
                requires any additional resources to carry out this 
                subsection.
    (b) Pilot Program on Implementing Digital Content Provenance 
Standards.--
            (1) Pilot program.--Not later than one year after the date 
        of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Defense Media 
        Activity shall carry out a pilot program to assess the 
        feasibility and advisability of implementing industry open 
        technical standards for digital content provenance for official 
        photographs and videos of the Department of Defense publicly 
        released by the Defense Visual Information Distribution 
        Service, or any successor operation, and other distribution 
        platforms, systems, and services used by the Department of 
        Defense (in this subsection referred to as the ``pilot 
        program'').
            (2) Elements.--In carrying out the pilot program, the 
        Director of the Defense Media Activity shall--
                    (A) establish a process for using industry open 
                technical standards to verify the digital content 
                provenance of applicable Department media content;
                    (B) apply technology solutions that comport with 
                industry open technical standard for digital content 
                provenance to photographs and videos of the Department 
                publicly released as described in paragraph (1) after 
                the date of the enactment of this Act;
                    (C) assess the feasibility and advisability of 
                applying an industry open technical standard for 
                digital content provenance to historical visual 
                information records of the Department stored at the 
                Defense Visual Information Records Center; and
                    (D) develop and apply measure of effectiveness for 
                the implementation of the pilot program.
            (3) Consultation.--In carrying out the pilot program, the 
        Director of the Defense Media Activity may consult with 
        federally funded research and development centers, entities 
        within private industry, institutions of higher education, and 
        such other entities as the Director considers appropriate.
            (4) Termination.--The pilot program shall terminate on 
        January 1, 2027.
            (5) Report.--
                    (A) In general.--Not later than January 1, 2026, 
                the Director of the Defense Media Activity shall submit 
                to the Committees on Armed Services of the House of 
                Representatives and the Senate a report on the pilot 
                program.
                    (B) Elements.--The report under subparagraph (A) 
                shall include the following:
                            (i) The findings of the Director with 
                        respect to the pilot program.
                            (ii) The name of each entity the Director 
                        consulted with pursuant to paragraph (3) in 
                        carrying out the pilot program.
                            (iii) An assessment by the Director of the 
                        effectiveness of the pilot program.
                            (iv) A recommendation by the Director as to 
                        whether the pilot program should be made 
                        permanent.
    (c) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) The term ``applicable Department media content'' means 
        any media holding generated, stored, or controlled by the 
        Defense Media Activity.
            (2) The term ``digital content forgery'' means the use of 
        emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and 
        machine learning techniques, to fabricate or manipulate audio, 
        visual, or text content with the intent to mislead.
            (3) The term ``digital content provenance'' means the 
        verifiable chronology of the origin and history of an image, 
        video, audio recording, electronic document, or other form of 
        digital content.
                                 <all>
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