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SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2932 FILED ON: 1/4/2024
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 2730
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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PRESENTED BY:
Barry R. Finegold
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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act relative to deceptive and fraudulent deepfakes in election communications.
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PETITION OF:
NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :Barry R. FinegoldSecond Essex and MiddlesexFrank A. Moran17th Essex4/12/2024 1 of 4
SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2932 FILED ON: 1/4/2024
SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 2730
By Mr. Finegold, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 2730) (subject to Joint Rule 12) of
Barry R. Finegold and Frank A. Moran for legislation relative to deceptive and fraudulent
deepfakes in election communications. Election Laws.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)
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An Act relative to deceptive and fraudulent deepfakes in election communications.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Chapter 56 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition,
2is hereby amended by inserting after section 39 the following new section:-
3 Section 39A. Synthetic Media in Election Communications
4 (a) As used in this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless
5the context clearly requires otherwise:
6 “Candidate” and “political committee” shall have the same meanings as such terms are
7defined in section 1 of chapter 55 of the General Laws.
8 “Deceptive or fraudulent deepfake”, synthetic media that depicts a candidate or political
9party with the intent to injure the reputation of the candidate or party or otherwise deceive a
10voter and that: (i) appears to a reasonable person to depict a real individual saying or doing
11something that that individual did not say or do; or (ii) provides a reasonable person a 2 of 4
12fundamentally different understanding or impression of the appearance, action or speech than a
13reasonable person would have from an unaltered, original version of the image, audio recording
14or video recording.
15 “Person”, an individual, corporation, political committee, association, operation, firm,
16partnership, trust or other form of business or personal association.
17 “Political party” shall have the meaning as defined in section 1 of chapter 50 of the
18General Laws.
19 “Synthetic media”, an image, audio recording or video recording of an individual’s
20appearance, speech or conduct that has been created or intentionally manipulated with the use of
21generative adversarial network techniques or other digital technology in a manner to create a
22realistic but false image, audio or video.
23 (b)(1) A person shall not distribute a synthetic media message that the person knows or
24reasonably should have known is a deceptive or fraudulent deepfake depicting a candidate or
25political party within 90 days of an election in which said candidate or political party will appear
26on the state or local ballot; provided, however, that this section shall not apply if the following
27statement is made in the form provided herein by the distributing person: ''This _____ (image,
28video, or audio) has been manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence.''
29 (2) The following requirements shall apply to the conveyance of such statement based on
30the medium of the message:
31 (i) If said synthetic media message includes an image or video recording, said statement
32shall appear as text in a clearly readable manner with a reasonable degree of color contrast 3 of 4
33between the background and the statement; provided, however, that said text shall be no smaller
34than the largest font size of any other text appearing in said image or video recording, if any; and
35provided further, that any such statement shall appear for the full duration of the video if the
36synthetic media message consists of a video recording.
37 (ii) If said synthetic media message consists only of an audio recording, said statement
38shall be read in a clearly-spoken manner with a reasonable pitch at the beginning of the audio, at
39the end of the audio and, if the audio is greater than 2 minutes in length, interspersed within the
40audio at intervals of not greater than 2 minutes each.
41 (c) A candidate whose appearance, action or speech is depicted through the use of a
42deceptive or fraudulent deepfake in violation of this section may institute a civil action for: (i)
43special or general damages not to exceed $10,000 per incident; (ii) injunctive or declaratory
44relief; or (iii) any other relief the court deems proper; provided, however, that such civil action
45shall not limit or preclude a plaintiff from securing or recovering any other available remedy;
46and provided further, that the court may award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs to the
47prevailing party.
48 (d) This section shall not apply to:
49 (i) a radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television
50operator, programmer or producer that broadcasts a deceptive or fraudulent deepfake in violation
51of this section as part of a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary or live
52coverage of bona fide news events, provided that the broadcast clearly acknowledges through
53verbal or text disclosure which is reasonably understandable to the average viewer or listener that
54the authenticity of the synthetic media is in question; 4 of 4
55 (ii) a radio or television broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television
56operator, programmer or producer that has been paid to broadcast such deceptive or fraudulent
57deepfake, provided that such radio or television broadcasting station has made a good faith effort
58to establish that the depiction is not a deceptive or fraudulent deepfake;
59 (iii) an internet website, or a regularly published newspaper, magazine or other periodical
60of general circulation, including an internet or electronic publication, which routinely carries
61news and commentary of general interest and that publishes a deceptive or fraudulent deepfake
62in violation of this section, provided that the publication clearly states, in a manner at least as
63prominent as the synthetic media itself, that said synthetic media does not accurately represent
64the speech or conduct of the candidate; or
65 (iv) synthetic media that constitutes satire or parody.
66 SECTION 2. This Act shall take effect upon its passage.