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Yes. Chapter 98B of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives you a civil claim if someone shared intimate images of you without your consent. It gives you the same claim if someone created sexual images of you using artificial intelligence. The law changed substantially on 1 September 2025, and most of what is written online about it is now out of date. Schiffer Law Firm in Houston handles these claims for people across Texas.
The step that cannot wait is preserving what you can see, and we can help you do it. Screenshot the images, the account that posted them, the URL, the date and any messages, and save them somewhere the poster cannot reach. Do not delete your own copies of your messages, because they prove how the material was obtained. Then call 713-521-0059, because the takedown request and the preservation letter should go out together.
More than it used to, and the name changed to say so. Until 2025 the chapter 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.
Section 98B.002 makes a person liable to you, as the person depicted, if four things are true:
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 is liable under that subsection.
Yes, since 1 September 2025. Section 98B.0021 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. The person must be recognizable as an actual person by face, likeness, voice or another distinguishing characteristic. A reasonable person viewing the material would find it indistinguishable from the person depicted.
Under Section 98B.0021 a defendant is liable if three things are true. The defendant produced, solicited, disclosed or promoted the material without your effective consent and with intent to harm you. The conduct caused you harm. And the conduct revealed your identity.
One structural difference matters. 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.
In defined circumstances, yes. 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 the material in exchange for payment. It reaches 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 it reaches a person who recklessly processes or facilitates payment for it, where the person knows or recklessly disregards that you 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 you request 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. 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 for material provided by another person. That term is defined in 47 U.S.C. § 230. The courts have not yet worked out how that carve-out interacts with the new platform liability in Section 98B.0022.
Yes. Section 98B.008, also added in 2025, gives you the right to a confidential identity in a Chapter 98B case. That means a pseudonym and the absence of other identifying information such as your address, telephone number and social security number.
The court shall tell you as early as possible that a confidential identity is available. It must allow its use in all petitions, filings and other documents. It must 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 your true identifying information. Divulging it without a written order is punishable by contempt.
Using a confidential identity is your choice, not a requirement. Our page on suing without your name becoming public covers the other routes to anonymity.
Ten years, not two. This is the change most likely to matter to you. 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 two dates. The first is the date you reasonably discover the material. The second is the date you turn 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 us about your specific dates, and see our page on how long you have to sue for the other periods that may apply to you.
Texas courts, in most situations. Section 98B.006 provides that a Texas court has personal jurisdiction over a defendant in four situations: the defendant resides in Texas; you reside 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 reaches has not been tested.
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.
Section 98B.003 is unusually favorable to you. It is mandatory rather than discretionary on its first three items. If you prevail, you shall be awarded actual damages, including damages for mental anguish; court costs; and reasonable attorney’s fees. You may additionally recover exemplary damages.
Section 98B.004 allows the court to issue a temporary restraining order or a temporary or permanent injunction to stop the disclosure or promotion. If a defendant violates that order, the statute sets damages of $1,000 for each violation that is wilful or intentional and $500 for each violation that is not.
Section 98B.005 provides that this cause of action is cumulative of any other remedy available under common law or another statute. Bringing a Chapter 98B claim does not cost you your other claims, and we plead them together where the facts support it.
When you call, we tell you what your case needs and get it started. That usually means the takedown and the evidence first: a written removal request to the platform under the 72-hour rule, written notice to the poster and the platform to keep what they hold, and your own copies secured before anything is deleted. Then we decide with you whether to file under your own name or a confidential identity, and we identify every defendant the chapter reaches, including a platform or payment processor where the facts fit.
Schiffer Law Firm is a Houston personal injury firm with 50 plus years of combined experience representing injured people and survivors across Texas. Jacob Schiffer was one of three lawyers on the trial team that obtained a $1.2 billion verdict in a Harris County image-based sexual abuse case tried in 2023. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other case.
There is no charge to talk, and no attorney’s fee unless there is a recovery.
Written by Jacob Schiffer, Attorney, Schiffer Law Firm. State Bar of Texas No. 24105175.
Call 713-521-0059.
Yes. Section 98B.0021, added by S.B. 441 effective 1 September 2025, covers artificial intimate visual material produced, adapted or modified using an artificial intelligence application or other software. You must be recognizable as an actual person, and a reasonable viewer must find the image indistinguishable from you.
Yes, in the circumstances Section 98B.0022 describes. It reaches website and application owners who recklessly facilitate the material for payment, owners of nudification applications, and payment processors who know or recklessly disregard that you did not consent.
Within 72 hours of receiving your removal request, under Section 98B.0022. The owner must also make reasonable efforts to remove known identical copies and must maintain an accessible removal request system. A violation is a deceptive trade practice.
Ten years under Section 98B.009, running from the later of the date you reasonably discover the material or the date you turn 18. Whether the 2025 changes reach earlier conduct depends on the bill's applicability clause, so ask about your dates.
Yes. Section 98B.008 gives you a confidential identity in a suit under this chapter, and the court must tell you it is available as early as possible. Using it is your choice.