§ 98B.007.Liberal Construction and Application; Certain Conduct Excepted

A construction directive paired with the federal immunity this chapter cannot override.

Subsection (a) directs that the chapter be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purpose to protect persons from, and provide adequate remedies to victims of, the disclosure or promotion of intimate visual material.

Subsection (b) is the significant limit. The chapter does not apply to a claim brought against an interactive computer service, as defined by 47 U.S.C. Section 230, for a disclosure or promotion consisting of intimate visual material provided by another person.

That is Section 230 immunity, written into the state statute. A platform is not liable under this chapter for material its users post.

The exclusion was not optional. Federal law preempts state law imposing publisher liability on an interactive computer service for third-party content, and the Legislature recognised the limit rather than legislating against it.

The 2025 platform provision was drafted around that constraint, which explains its shape. It does not impose liability for hosting user content; it imposes liability for recklessly facilitating production or disclosure in exchange for payment, for owning a nudification application, for processing payment, and for failing to remove material after a request — conduct of the platform itself rather than publication of another's material.

Whether that distinction holds against Section 230 is a question the courts will answer.