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H846 • 2025

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

Elections
Active

The official status still shows this bill as active or still awaiting another formal step.

Sponsor
Bradley H. Jones, Jr.
Last action
2026-02-11
Official status
New draft substituted, see H5094
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising By Representative Jones of North Reading, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.

What This Bill Does

  • An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising By Representative Jones of North Reading, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No.
  • 846) of Bradley H.
  • Jones, Jr., and others relative to disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising.
  • Election Laws.

Limits and Unknowns

  • This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

  1. 2026-02-11 House

    Committee recommended bill ought to pass and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means

  2. 2026-02-11 House

    Committee recommended ought to pass with an amendment, substituting therefor a bill with the same title, see H5094

  3. 2026-02-11 House

    Referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling with the amendment pending

  4. 2026-02-11 House

    Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting for a second reading with the amendment pending

  5. 2026-02-11 House

    Read second, amended (as recommended by the committee on House Ways and Means)

  6. 2026-02-11 House

    New draft substituted, see H5094

  7. 2025-09-02 House

    Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means

  8. 2025-06-27 Joint

    Hearing scheduled for 07/08/2025 from 01:00 PM-04:00 PM in B-1

  9. 2025-02-27 House

    Referred to the committee on Election Laws

  10. 2025-02-27 Senate

    Senate concurred

Official Summary Text

An Act enhancing disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising
By Representative Jones of North Reading, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 846) of Bradley H. Jones, Jr., and others relative to disclosure requirements for synthetic media in political advertising. Election Laws.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text
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Bill H.846

SECTION 1. Chapter 50 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended in section 1 by adding the following definitions:-

"Artificial intelligence" means the capability of a computer system to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, content generation, and decision-making.

"Generative artificial intelligence" means artificial intelligence technology capable of creating content such as text, audio, image, or video based on patterns learned from large volumes of data rather than being explicitly programmed with rules.

"Synthetic media" means audio or video content substantially produced by generative artificial intelligence.

SECTION 2. Chapter 56 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2022 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 70. Disclosure Requirements for Synthetic Media in Political Advertising

(a) Any audio or video communication that Is paid for by a candidate campaign committee, political action committee, political issues committee, political party, or a person using a contribution; Is intended to influence voting for or against a candidate or ballot proposition in an election or primary; and Contains synthetic media, shall: (1) Include at the beginning and end of the communication the words, "Contains content generated by AI"; and (2) Include throughout the duration of each portion of the communication containing synthetic media, in legible writing, the words: (i) "This video content generated by AI," if the communication includes only video synthetic media; (ii) "This audio content generated by AI," if the communication includes only audio synthetic media; or (iii) "This content generated by AI," if the communication includes both video and audio synthetic media.

(b) Violation of any provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000. Compliance with this section does not exempt a person from civil or criminal liability for violations of other applicable law.

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