Image Based Sexual Abuse and AI Deepfakes

What does Chapter 98B cover after the 2025 amendments?

The chapter is broader than its old name

The claim lives in Chapter 98B of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Until 2025 it was titled “Unlawful Disclosure or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material.” It is now titled “Unlawful Production, Solicitation, Disclosure, or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material,” and that change in wording reflects a real expansion of what is covered.

Senate Bill 441, passed by the 89th Legislature and effective 1 September 2025, added four new sections to the chapter.

The original claim: sharing real images

Section 98B.002 makes a person liable to someone depicted in intimate visual material if four things are true:

The defendant disclosed the material without the depicted person’s effective consent and with the intent to harm that person.

At the time of disclosure, the defendant knew or had reason to believe the material was obtained or created under circumstances in which the depicted person had a reasonable expectation that it would remain private.

The disclosure caused harm.

The disclosure revealed the depicted person’s identity in any manner, including through accompanying information or through information a third party supplied in response.

Section 98B.002(b) also reaches promotion: a person who, knowing the character and content of the material, promotes it on a website or forum that person owns or operates.

The new claim: AI-generated and altered images

Section 98B.0021 is new as of 1 September 2025 and it covers artificial intimate visual material.

Section 98B.001(1) defines that as computer-generated intimate visual material produced, adapted or modified using an artificial intelligence application or other software, in which the person is recognizable as an actual person by face, likeness, voice or another distinguishing characteristic, and which a reasonable person viewing it would find indistinguishable from the person depicted.

Under Section 98B.0021 a defendant is liable if the defendant produced, solicited, disclosed or promoted the material without effective consent and with intent to harm, the conduct caused harm, and the conduct revealed the depicted person’s identity.

One structural difference matters and is worth understanding. The AI section contains no reasonable-expectation-of-privacy element. That element exists in the original section because real intimate images have a history of how they were obtained. An image that was fabricated has no such history, and the Legislature wrote the new section accordingly.

Websites, AI applications and payment processors

Section 98B.0022 is also new. It reaches the owner of an internet website or application, including a social media platform, who recklessly facilitates the production or disclosure of artificial intimate visual material in exchange for payment; the owner of a publicly accessible “nudification application,” which Section 98B.001(3) defines as an AI application primarily designed and marketed to produce this material; and a person who recklessly processes or facilitates payment for it, where the person knows or recklessly disregards that the depicted person did not consent.

The section also creates a takedown duty, and it is specific to artificial intimate visual material rather than to intimate images generally. If the depicted person requests removal, the owner must remove the material within 72 hours of receiving the request and make reasonable efforts to identify and remove any known identical copies. The owner must maintain an easily accessible removal request system and give clear and conspicuous notice of it in plain language.

A violation of those duties is a deceptive trade practice under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and the Attorney General may sue for injunctive relief against a person who repeatedly violates them.

One caveat. Section 98B.007(b) says the chapter does not apply to a claim against an interactive computer service, as that term is defined in 47 U.S.C. § 230, for material provided by another person. How that carve-out interacts with the new platform liability in Section 98B.0022 has not yet been worked out by the courts. Anyone who tells you the answer is settled is guessing.

You can sue without your name on the petition

Section 98B.008, also added in 2025, gives a claimant in a Chapter 98B case the right to a confidential identity, meaning a pseudonym and the absence of other identifying information such as address, telephone number and social security number.

The court shall tell the claimant as early as possible that a confidential identity is available, allow its use in all petitions, filings and other documents, use it in all court proceedings and records including on appeal, and maintain the records so as to protect confidentiality. Only the judge, a party, a party’s attorney, and a person authorized by written court order may know the true identifying information. Divulging it without a written order is punishable by contempt.

Using a confidential identity is the claimant’s choice, not a requirement.

The deadline: ten years, not two

This is the change most likely to matter to someone reading this page.

Before 1 September 2025, Chapter 98B contained no limitations provision, and the general two-year personal injury deadline in Section 16.003 was the working assumption.

Section 98B.009, added in 2025, now provides that suit must be brought not later than ten years after the later of the date the depicted person reasonably discovers the material, or the date the depicted person turns 18.

If you read somewhere that you have two years, that source has not been updated.

Whether the 2025 amendments reach conduct that occurred before 1 September 2025 depends on the applicability clause in the bill itself. Do not assume either way. Ask a lawyer about your specific dates.

Where the courts can hear it

Section 98B.006 provides that a Texas court has personal jurisdiction over a defendant if the defendant resides in Texas, the depicted claimant resides in Texas, the material is stored on a server located in Texas, or the material is available for view in Texas. The fourth of those is written very broadly, and how far it actually reaches has not been tested.

Primary sources

• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 98B (intimate visual material)
• S.B. 441, 89th Legislature (enrolled text)
• Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 16 (limitations)

Every statute and case linked above was read at its primary source. Texas statutes change every legislative session and case law is constantly changing.

This page is general information about Texas law. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.