By: Johnson S.B. No. 1044
(In the Senate - Filed February 21, 2023; March 3, 2023,
read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
April 17, 2023, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 10,
Nays 0; April 17, 2023, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to criminal offenses for the creation or distribution of
certain misleading images and videos; creating a criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. The heading to Section 255.004, Election Code,
is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 255.004. FALSE IMAGES, VIDEOS, AND SOURCES [TRUE
SOURCE] OF COMMUNICATION.
SECTION 2. Section 255.004, Election Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (c), (d), and (e) and adding Subsections (d-1)
and (d-2) to read as follows:
(c) An offense under Subsection (a), (b), or (d) [this
section] is a Class A misdemeanor. An offense under Subsection
(d-1) is a Class B misdemeanor.
(d) A person commits an offense if the person, with the
intent to deceive and with the intent to injure a candidate or
influence the result of an election:
(1) creates or causes to be created a deep fake video;
and
(2) publishes, distributes, or causes [the deep fake
video] to be published or distributed the deep fake video during the
period beginning 90 days before the date of the election and ending
on the date of the [within 30 days of an] election.
(d-1) A person commits an offense if the person, with the
intent to deceive and influence the result of an election:
(1) creates or causes to be created an altered image;
or
(2) publishes, distributes, or causes to be published
or distributed an altered image during the period beginning 90 days
before the date of the election and ending on the date of the
election.
(d-2) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution for an
offense under Subsection (d-1) if the person includes a clear label
on the image stating that the image is altered.
(e) In this section:[,]
(1) "Altered image" means an image that has been
manipulated to change the physical appearance of an individual or
depict an individual performing an action that did not occur. The
term does not include:
(A) a cartoon, caricature, or any other image
that a reasonable viewer would understand to be a satirical
representation of the individual; or
(B) an image altered only to change the
saturation, brightness, contrast, color, or any other superficial
quality of the image.
(2) "Deep ["deep] fake video" means a video[, created
with the intent to deceive,] that appears to depict a real person
performing an action that did not occur in reality.
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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