The Senate State Government and Elections Committee heard public testimony on Senate Bill 5817, which would restrict usage of synthetic media “deep fakes” in campaigns for elective office.

SB 5817 – 2021-22

Bill Information: Restricting the use of synthetic media in campaigns for elective office. Bill Information Page (link)

Sponsors: Frockt, Dhingra, Liias, Stanford
Status: Public hearing in the Senate Committee on State Government & Elections held January 26th.

Brief Summary of Bill

Full Senate Bill Report

Requires a disclosure when any manipulated audio or visual media of a candidate is used in an electioneering communication.
Creates a cause of action for candidates whose voices or likenesses appear in synthetic media distributed without disclosure.
Provides exceptions for parody and news reporting.

What Is A Deep Fake?

Deep fakes rose to prominence in 2017 on Reddit. They are in their most well known form a videos with one person’s face convincingly replaced by a computer-generated face, which most often resembles a second known individual. The “deep” in deep fake refers to “deep learning.”