An Act providing for civil liability for fraudulent misrepresentation of candidates; and imposing penalties.

PRIOR PRINTER'S NO. 841 PRINTER'S NO. 1819
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 811
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY KHAN, SHAFFER, GREEN, MERSKI, PIELLI, HILL-EVANS,
DONAHUE, FREEMAN, PROBST, FLEMING, CIRESI, KINKEAD, OTTEN,
KENYATTA, CERRATO, CEPEDA-FREYTIZ, SANCHEZ, HARKINS,
BOROWSKI, D. WILLIAMS, HOHENSTEIN, SHUSTERMAN, STEELE,
WEBSTER, WARREN, DALEY, O'MARA AND INGLIS, MARCH 5, 2025
AS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS AMENDED, JUNE 3, 2025
AN ACT
Providing for civil liability for fraudulent misrepresentation
of candidates; and imposing penalties.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Short title.
This act shall be known and may be cited as the Fraudulent
Misrepresentation of a Candidate Prevention Act.
Section 2. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Artificial intelligence." As follows:
(1) A machine-based system that can, for a given set of
human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations
or decisions influencing real or virtual environments,
including the ability to:
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(i) perceive real and virtual environments;
(ii) abstract perceptions made under subparagraph
(i) into models through analysis in an automated manner;
and
(iii) use model inference to formulate options for
information or action based on outcomes under
subparagraphs (i) and (ii).
(2) The term includes generative artificial
intelligence.
"Campaign advertisement." A public advertisement for the
purposes of influencing public opinion with respect to
legislative, administrative or electoral matters utilizing a
medium that includes mailings, emails, telephone calls, radio,
television, billboards, yard signs or other electronic media.
"Candidate." As defined in section 102(a) of the
Pennsylvania Election Code, including a candidate for President
of the United States. The term includes a current or former
candidate.
"Covered person." Any of the following:
(1) A candidate.
(2) A firm, partnership, corporation, limited liability
company, association, organization or similar entity.
(3) A political committee, including a political action
committee, a political party or a political body.
(4) A political action committee that only receives
contributions to make independent expenditures.
(5) A foreign government, including any agency or
instrumentality thereof.
(6) An employee, contractor or individual acting at the
behest of an entity specified under paragraph (1), (2), (3),
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(4) or (5) or an officer, director, employee, owner,
shareholder or contractor thereof.
"DEEPFAKE." ANY VIDEO RECORDING, MOTION-PICTURE FILM, SOUND
RECORDING, ELECTRONIC IMAGE OR PHOTOGRAPH OR ANY TECHNOLOGICAL
REPRESENTATION OF SPEECH OR CONDUCT SUBSTANTIALLY DERIVATIVE
THEREOF:
(1) THAT IS SO REALISTIC THAT A REASONABLE PERSON WOULD
BELIEVE IT DEPICTS SPEECH OR CONDUCT OF AN INDIVIDUAL WHO DID
NOT IN FACT ENGAGE IN THE SPEECH OR CONDUCT; AND
(2) THE PRODUCTION OF WHICH WAS SUBSTANTIALLY DEPENDENT
UPON TECHNICAL MEANS RATHER THAN THE ABILITY OF ANOTHER
INDIVIDUAL TO PHYSICALLY OR VERBALLY IMPERSONATE THE
INDIVIDUAL.
"DIGITAL CONTENT PROVENANCE." FACTUAL INFORMATION THAT
DETAILS A DIGITAL RESOURCE'S CREATOR, ORIGIN, CONTEXT, HISTORY
AND EDITING PROCESS AND CONFORMS TO AN OPEN INDUSTRY TECHNICAL
STANDARD.
"Disseminate." To produce, publish, distribute, broadcast,
publicize, display, transmit or otherwise publicly share.
"Election." As defined in section 102(f) of the Pennsylvania
Election Code.
"Generative artificial intelligence." The class of models
that emulate the structure and characteristics of input data in
order to generate derived synthetic content.
"INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE." ANY INFORMATION
SERVICE, SYSTEM OR ACCESS SOFTWARE PROVIDER THAT PROVIDES OR
ENABLES COMPUTER ACCESS BY MULTIPLE USERS TO A COMPUTER SERVER,
INCLUDING SPECIFICALLY A SERVICE OR SYSTEM THAT PROVIDES ACCESS
TO THE INTERNET AND SUCH SYSTEMS OPERATED OR SERVICES OFFERED BY
LIBRARIES OR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
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"Pennsylvania Election Code." The act of June 3, 1937
(P.L.1333, No.320), known as the Pennsylvania Election Code.
"Public office." As defined in section 102(s) of the
Pennsylvania Election Code.
"Synthetic content." Information such as images, videos,
audio clips and text that have been significantly modified or
generated by algorithms, including artificial intelligence.
Section 3. Civil liability for fraudulent misrepresentation of
candidates.
(a) Liability.--A covered person shall be liable for
fraudulent misrepresentation of a candidate if, within 90 days
before an election and with willful or reckless disregard for
the possibility of influencing the outcome of an election, the
covered person KNOWINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY disseminates or
causes to be disseminated a campaign advertisement that contains
an artificially generated impersonation of a candidate for
public office with the intent to misrepresent the words, actions
or beliefs of the candidate A DEEPFAKE.
(b) Clear and conspicuous disclosure.--A covered person
shall not be liable for a fraudulent misrepresentation under
subsection (a) if the campaign advertisement contains a clear
and conspicuous disclosure. The disclosure under this subsection
must:
(1) State that the campaign advertisement contains
synthetic DEEPFAKE content of a candidate for public office.
The disclosure shall be in substantially the following form:
This (text/image/video/sound)
(IMAGE/VIDEO/SOUND/CONTENT) CONTAINS DEEPFAKE CONTENT
AND has been manipulated or generated using synthetic
content TO DEPICT SPEECH OR CONDUCT THAT DID NOT
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OCCUR.
(2) Be displayed in the first instance when EACH TIME
the campaign advertisement is presented.
(3) Be presented in a manner reasonably understandable
and readily noticeable. The following shall apply:
(i) For content presented in static images, the
disclosure shall be in written form, in a size and font
that is easily readable by the average viewer, accessible
screen readers and other technology to assist visually
impaired users.
(ii) For content presented in video formats, the
disclosure shall appear for the duration of the video in
a format that is easily readable by the average viewer.
The disclosure shall be read in a clearly spoken manner
and in a pitch and at a speed that can be easily heard by
the average listener at the beginning and end of the
video.
(iii) For content that consists of only audio, the
disclosure shall be read in a clearly spoken manner and
in a pitch and at a speed that can be easily heard by the
average listener at the beginning and end of the audio,
and, if the audio is more than two minutes in length,
interspersed within the audio at intervals of not more
than two minutes each.
(4) BE IN THE SAME LANGUAGE AS USED IN THE CAMPAIGN
ADVERTISEMENT. FOR CONTENT PRESENTED IN STATIC IMAGES OR
VIDEO FORMATS, IF THE LANGUAGE USED IS NOT ENGLISH, THE
DISCLOSURE MUST APPEAR IN BOTH THE LANGUAGE USED AND IN
ENGLISH.
(C) DIGITAL CONTENT PROVENANCE.--A COVERED PERSON SHALL
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ENSURE THAT CONTENT IN A CAMPAIGN ADVERTISEMENT CONTAINING A
DISCLOSURE UNDER SUBSECTION (B) CARRIES EMBEDDED TAMPER-EVIDENT
DIGITAL CONTENT PROVENANCE FOR THE DEEPFAKE CONTENT THAT
DISCLOSES:
(1) THE INITIAL AUTHORITY AND CREATOR OF THE CONTENT.
(2) ANY SUBSEQUENT ENTITIES THAT EDITED, ALTERED OR
OTHERWISE MODIFIED THE CONTENT.
(3) ANY USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN GENERATING OR
MODIFYING THE SUBSTANTIVE CONTENT.
(c) (D) Relief.--A candidate for public office aggrieved by
a covered person under subsection (a) may bring a civil action
against the covered person in a court of competent jurisdiction
and shall be entitled to recover punitive damages, reasonable
attorney fees and other reasonably related litigation costs
incurred relating to the civil action. Upon a showing of cause
for the issuance of injunctive relief, a court may issue a
temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction or permanent
injunction as the court deems appropriate. During any period
that a civil action under this subsection is pending, a court
may order the immediate removal of the campaign advertisement
and cessation of the activity forming the basis of the
complaint.
(d) (E) Civil penalties.--
(1) In addition to any other judgment or relief awarded
under subsection (c) (D) to an aggrieved candidate for public
office, a court may, for each campaign advertisement
containing unique synthetic DEEPFAKE content, impose a civil
penalty on the covered person for each day the fraudulent
misrepresentation is disseminated in an amount up to:
(i) $15,000 when the campaign advertisement contains
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unique synthetic DEEPFAKE content of a candidate for a
municipal public office in this Commonwealth for which
the candidate files with the county board of elections
under section 913 of the Pennsylvania Election Code.
(ii) Except as provided in subparagraph (iii),
$50,000 when the campaign advertisement contains unique
synthetic DEEPFAKE content of a candidate for a State
public office in this Commonwealth for which the
candidate files with the Secretary of the Commonwealth
under section 913 of the Pennsylvania Election Code.
(iii) $250,000 when the campaign advertisement
contains unique synthetic DEEPFAKE content of a candidate
for President of the United States, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES, presidential elector, the United States
Senate or the United States House of Representatives.
(2) For a covered person that is a political action
committee that only receives contributions to make
independent expenditures, the court may impose twice the
amounts specified under paragraph (1) on the covered person.
(e) (F) Frivolous actions.--If a court determines that a
civil action brought under this section is frivolous, the court
shall issue an order suspending the covered person's obligation
to respond to the civil action and shall order the candidate to
show cause why the civil action should not be dismissed. If the
candidate fails to respond to the court or the candidate's
response to the court confirms that the civil action is
frivolous, the court shall dismiss the civil action and may
award reasonable attorney fees and other reasonably related
litigation costs incurred relating to the civil action to the
covered person and may impose appropriate sanctions against the
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candidate and the candidate's attorney.
(f) (G) Defense.--It shall be a defense to a civil action
brought under this section that the covered person disseminated
the campaign advertisement containing synthetic DEEPFAKE content
with the consent of the candidate if the covered person who
disseminated the campaign advertisement can establish that the
candidate has given the candidate's express, written consent.
(g) Location.--A covered person may be found liable in a
civil action brought under this section if the covered person or
candidate is located within this Commonwealth.
(h) Applicability.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to apply to any of the following:
(1) A law enforcement officer engaged in the performance
of the law enforcement officer's official duties.
(2) A streaming service, radio or television
broadcaster, including a cable or satellite television
operator, programmer or producer that disseminates a campaign
advertisement provided by another person.
(3) A newspaper, magazine or other periodical of general
circulation, including an Internet or electronic publication,
which routinely carries news and commentary of general
interest and that disseminates a campaign advertisement
provided by another person.
(4) An entity under paragraph (2) or (3) when the entity
is paid to disseminate a campaign advertisement with the
consent of the candidate as specified under subsection (f)
(G).
(5) An interactive computer service, as defined in 47
U.S.C. § 230 (relating to protection for private blocking and
screening of offensive material).
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(6) An Internet service provider, cloud provider,
cybersecurity provider, communication service provider or
telecommunications network.
(7) Content that constitutes satire or parody which is
substantially dependent on the ability of an individual to
impersonate a candidate physically or verbally and not upon
generative artificial intelligence TECHNOLOGY.
(8) THE PROVIDER OR DEVELOPER OF TECHNOLOGY USED IN THE
CREATION OF THE DEEPFAKE.
(i) Construction.--Nothing in this act shall be construed
to:
(1) restrict the ability of a covered person to detect,
prevent, respond to or protect against security incidents,
identity theft, fraud, harassment, malicious or deceptive
activities or any illegal activity, preserve the integrity or
security of systems or investigate, report or prosecute those
responsible for any such action; or
(2) limit or preclude a candidate from securing or
recovering any other available remedies at law or in equity.
Section 4. Effective date.
This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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