Text of MI HB 4938 (2025)

HOUSE BILL NO. 4938 A bill to prohibit the distribution of certain material on the internet that corrupts the public morals and prescribe penalties; to prescribe civil sanctions; to regulate commercial entities; to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities; to create certain funds; and to provide for the distribution of money from certain funds. the people of the state of michigan enact: Sec. 1. This act may be cited as the "anticorruption of public morals act". Sec. 2. As used in this act: (a) "Circumvention tools" means any software, hardware, or service designed to bypass internet filtering mechanisms or content restrictions including virtual private networks, proxy servers, and encrypted tunneling methods to evade content restrictions. (b) "Commercial entity" means any business, institution, government facility, nonprofit, or digital service, public or private, that provides access to, hosts, sells, or otherwise handles content intended for users or the general public. (c) "Distribute" means to provide, share, transmit, publish, circulate, exhibit, sell, or make available in any way online, whether by device, via peer-to-peer, broadcast, or streaming methods. (d) "Internet service provider" means any entity that provides consumers with internet access and that must enforce content filtering under this act. (e) "Pornographic material" includes any content, digital, streamed, or otherwise distributed on the internet, the primary purpose of which is to sexually arouse or gratify, including videos, erotica, magazines, stories, manga, material generated by artificial intelligence, live feeds, or sound clips. (f) "Prohibited material" means: (i) Except as provided in subparagraph (ii), material that at common law was not protected by adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting laws abridging freedom of speech or of the press, and: (A) Is a depiction, description, or simulation, whether real, animated, digitally generated, written, or auditory, of sexual acts, that includes any of the following: (I) Vaginal or anal intercourse. (II) Fellatio or cunnilingus. (III) Masturbation. (IV) Ejaculation or orgasm. (V) Penetration with sexual devices. (VI) Group sex. (VII) Bondage, domination, or sadomasochism. (VIII) Acts involving bodily fluids for sexual arousal. (IX) Erotic autonomous sensory meridian response content, moaning, or sensual voice content. (X) Animated, virtual, or sexual activity generated by artificial intelligence. (XI) Depictions of characters acting or resembling minors in sexual contexts. (XII) Any other pornographic material. (B) Is a depiction, description, or simulation, whether real, animated, digitally generated, written, or auditory, that includes a disconnection between biology and gender by an individual of 1 biological sex imitating, depicting, or representing himself or herself to be of the other biological sex by means of a combination of attire, cosmetology, or prosthetics, or as having a reproductive nature contrary to the individual's biological sex. (ii) Prohibited material does not include any of the following: (A) Material to be used for scientific and medical research or instruction. (B) Peer-reviewed academic content. Sec. 3. (1) A commercial entity, public institution, private actor, or internet platform shall not knowingly distribute or make available prohibited material via the internet to any individual in this state. Except as provided in subsection (2), an individual or entity that violates this subsection is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 20 years or a fine of not more than $100,000.00, or both. (2) If a violation of subsection (1) involves more than 100 pieces of prohibited material, the individual or entity is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 25 years or a fine of not more than $125,000.00, or both. (3) An internet service provider providing internet service in this state shall implement mandatory filtering technology to prevent residents of this state from accessing prohibited material. An internet service provider providing internet service in this state shall actively monitor and block known circumvention tools. (4) In addition to the criminal penalties provided under subsections (1) and (2), a commercial entity or internet service provider that knowingly facilitates access to prohibited material in violation of this section is subject to a civil fine of not more than $500,000.00 for each violation. (5) The promotion or sale of circumvention tools to access prohibited material is prohibited. (6) An internet service provider providing internet service in this state shall block access to specific websites that host prohibited material on receipt of a valid court order. Sec. 4. (1) An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall update its terms of service and content policies to explicitly prohibit any hosting, promotion, indexing, linking to, or access of prohibited material. A policy developed under this subsection may provide for the implementation of filtering tools. An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall enforce such prohibitions uniformly across all users. (2) An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall implement content moderation tools, such as: (a) Artificial intelligence driven filtering technology for preemptive removal of prohibited material. (b) Human review teams responsible for content evaluation and enforcement. (c) A public reporting mechanism with a 2-business-day response time for law enforcement-flagged content. (d) Automatic account suspension or permanent bans for repeat offenders. (3) An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall provide an annual transparency report to the department of state police that details compliance measures and enforcement actions. (4) An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall implement filtering and moderation systems, such as systems that are capable of doing the following: (a) Prevent access to prohibited material for all users. (b) Use both automated and human moderation. (c) Include real-time content scanning, keyword and metadata analysis, image recognition, and immediate takedown mechanisms. (d) Operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without user override. (5) An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall establish a trusted flagger program through which law enforcement and designated organizations have priority in reporting prohibited material. An internet platform, website, or social media service that is accessible by a user in this state shall respond to such flagged content within 2 business days and begin removal or disabling access procedures immediately. Law enforcement, certified civil agencies, and public institutions may report prohibited content with priority. As used in this subsection, "trusted flagger program" means a program that must be administered by the department of attorney general. Sec. 5. (1) The department of attorney general shall establish a special internet content enforcement division to audit, investigate, and enforce compliance with this act. (2) The special division shall do all of the following: (a) Investigate and prosecute violations of this act. (b) Conduct audits of internet service providers and internet platforms, websites, and social media services to ensure compliance with filtering and content-restriction requirements. (c) Coordinate with federal and international law enforcement to remove access to prohibited material on the internet by the residents of this state. (d) Manage a public reporting system through which residents of this state can submit complaints regarding violations. (e) Issue legally binding orders that require internet platforms to remove noncompliant content within 2 business days of notice. (f) Conduct regular compliance training and issue guidelines to internet service providers and internet platforms. (g) Prepare an annual compliance and enforcement report. The report required under this subdivision must be submitted to the governor and legislature. (3) An internet platform, internet service provider, website, or institution must comply with a takedown order issued by the attorney general or a designated enforcement division under subsection (2)(e) within 2 business days of notice. As used in this subsection, "business day" excludes weekends and official state or national holidays. (4) An internet platform, internet service provider, website, or institution that fails to comply with subsection (3) is subject to a civil fine of $250,000.00 per day of delay. (5) The special division created under subsection (1) must be staffed with digital forensics analysts, legal experts, cybersecurity specialists, and investigators. (6) A fund is created in the state treasury to prevent the distribution of prohibited material via the internet to residents of this state. (7) The state treasurer shall deposit money and other assets received from civil fines collected under this act or from any other source in the fund. The state treasurer shall direct the investment of money in the fund and credit interest and earnings from the investments to the fund. (8) The department of attorney general is the administrator of the fund for audits of the fund. (9) The department of attorney general shall expend money from the fund on appropriation, only for the costs of administration and enforcement of this act and for any costs associated with the administration of this act. Enacting section 1. This act takes effect 90 days after the date it is enacted into law. Enacting section 2. This act does not take effect unless House Bill No. ____ (request no. H03698'25) of the 103rd Legislature is enacted into law.