Summary: Voters must be able to identify fraudulent video, audio and pictures, produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other digital tools and used in paid election campaign communications. The Deceptive AI Campaign Disclosure Act specifies that campaign ads must include a disclosure statement if deceptive digital media has been used.
Drafting note: This model attempts to address the problem without violating the First Amendment. Courts have struck down laws restricting “deepfakes” in California and Hawaii, although elsewhere, similar laws have taken effect. So, policymakers should take constitutional considerations very seriously and seek legal advice. A simple and straightforward version is Maine’s LD 517 enacted in March 2026.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This Act shall be called the “Deceptive AI Campaign Disclosure Act.”
SECTION 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE
(A) FINDINGS—The legislature finds that:
1) The state has a compelling interest in guaranteeing free and fair elections.
2) Political deepfakes are computer-generated fraudulent pictures, videos and audios of people saying and doing things they never said or did.
3) The use of false digitally created pictures, videos and audios in politics has proliferated. They influence voters’ behavior, choices, and trust in the electoral process and electoral outcomes. They sow confusion among residents, which can lead them to refrain from voting altogether.
4) Political deepfakes are different from spoken or written lies in politics because they are perceived as proving their own lies. People believe what they see or hear, and so—unlike spoken lies—it does not occur to many voters exposed to deepfakes that there might be different claims from two sides. Voters think they saw or heard proof when, in fact, it’s intentional fabrication.
5) Thus, political deepfakes pose a critical risk to democracy and to free and fair elections.
6) For many decades, jurisdictions across the nation have required disclosure statements of various kinds on political advertisements, and such disclosures have been held to be constitutional.
7) Other measures purported to be “less-restrictive alternatives” to address political deepfakes, such as “fact checking” and “counter speech” would be wholly ineffective during the short time period when voters pay attention to candidates and elections. They are simply unrealistic, impractical and naïve as alternatives.
8) Disclosure is, in fact, the least restrictive means to address these intentionally false and defamatory videos, audios and pictures.
(B) PURPOSE—This law is enacted to strengthen disclosure in election advertisements, defending truth as the cornerstone of our democratic system.
SECTION 3. ELECTION CAMPAIGN DISCLOSURES
After section XXX, the following new section XXX shall be inserted:
(A) DEFINITIONS—In this section:
“Deceptive digital media” means an image, an audio recording or a video recording of an individual’s appearance, speech, or conduct that a reasonable person would perceive to be authentic but has been intentionally manipulated or created with the use of digital technology, such as artificial intelligence, that (1) depicts the individual saying or doing something that the individual did not say or do; or (2) presents a materially false understanding or impression of the individual’s appearance, speech or conduct.
(B) DISCLOSURE
1) Within 120 days before an election in this state, if a political candidate or committee [cite the code section that identifies political candidates and committees of the kind that are routinely subject to authority line disclosures] advertises or otherwise distributes a communication to voters that contains deceptive digital media where the alterations from reality are defamatory toward a political candidate or the election system, then the deceptive digital media shall contain a disclosure statement provided in this section. “Actual malice” or money damages need not be proven for deceptive digital media to be “defamatory” under this subsection.
2) For deceptive digital media that is a video, the disclosure statement shall be: “This video has been digitally manipulated or altered to depict events that did not occur.” The text of this disclosure statement shall appear (a) in a size that is easily readable by the average viewer; (b) inside the image or immediately above or below it; and (c) during the full duration of the video recording.
3) For deceptive digital media that is a picture, the disclosure statement shall be: “This image has been digitally manipulated or altered to depict events that did not occur.” The text of this disclosure statement shall appear (a) in a size that is easily readable by the average viewer; and (b) inside the image or immediately above or below it.
4) For deceptive digital media that is audio only, the disclosure statement shall be: “This audio has been digitally manipulated or altered to depict events that did not occur.” The text of this disclosure statement shall be (a) spoken at both the beginning and end of the audio recording; and (b) read in a clearly spoken manner and in a pitch and pace that can be easily heard by the average listener.
5) This section applies only to candidates and campaign committees that are required to include an authority line on advertising under [cite the appropriate section of state law]. It does not apply to (a) bona fide news communications; (b) a provider of a telecommunications service or information service, as those terms are defined in the Communications Act of 1934, 47 U.S.C. § 153, for content provided by another person; (c) a provider of an interactive computer service, as defined in 47 U.S.C. § 230, for content provided by another person; or (d) satire or parody.
6) This section does not apply to a video, picture or audio that has been modified to improve audio, video or image clarity, to add captions, or to highlight a specific section of the image, audio recording or video recording, as long as the modification does not create a materially different understanding or impression of the individual’s appearance, action or speech than a reasonable person would have from an unaltered, original version of the image, audio recording or video recording.
(C) ENFORCEMENT
1) [Apply the same enforcement that would be used if a candidate or committee distributed fliers or ads without an authority line. Presumably, existing law includes a method for aggrieved parties to complain and, at least, a civil penalty that deters violations.]
2) [Allow the candidate who is defamed to bring an expedited civil action in court for an injunction and damages.]
SECTION 4. EFFECTIVE DATE
This law shall become effective on July 1, 202X.