Prohibits the creation and dissemination of synthetic media within sixty days of an election with intent to unduly influence the outcome of an election; makes such act a class E felony.

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          6491

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                      March 5, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. VANEL -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Election Law

        AN ACT to amend  the  election  law,  in  relation  to  prohibiting  the
          creation  and dissemination of synthetic media within sixty days of an
          election with intent to unduly influence the outcome of an election

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. The election law is amended by adding a new section 17-172
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 17-172. Creating synthetic media with intent to unduly influence the
     4  outcome of an election. 1. A person who, with intent to injure a  candi-
     5  date  or  unduly influence the outcome of an election, creates or causes
     6  to be created a fabricated photographic, videographic, or  audio  record
     7  and  causes  such fabricated photographic, videographic, or audio record
     8  to be disseminated or published within sixty days of an  election  shall
     9  be guilty of a class E felony.
    10    2. For purposes of this section:
    11    (a)  "Fabricated  photographic,  videographic,  or  audio  record"  or
    12  "synthetic media" shall mean a still image,  video  or  audio  recording
    13  that:
    14    (i)  exhibits  a  high  level of authenticity or convincing appearance
    15  that is visually or audibly indistinguishable from reality;
    16    (ii) is either manipulated or entirely artificial, including  but  not
    17  limited to, manipulation through means of advanced synthetic media tech-
    18  nologies that utilize artificial intelligence, such as deepfakes, gener-
    19  ative pre-trained transformers, and stable diffusion; and
    20    (iii)  depicts a scenario that did not actually occur or that has been
    21  altered in a significant way from how they actually occurred.
    22    (b) "Disseminate" and  "publish"  shall  have  the  same  meanings  as
    23  defined in section 250.40 of the penal law.
    24    3. This section shall not apply to the following:

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD10146-01-5
        A. 6491                             2

     1    (a)  dissemination  or publication of synthetic media that was created
     2  for the purpose of political or social commentary, parody,  or  artistic
     3  expression  that  is  not  disseminated  or published with the intent to
     4  misrepresent its authenticity;
     5    (b)  dissemination  or publication of synthetic media that was created
     6  for the purpose of news reporting  where  the  synthetic  media  is  not
     7  disseminated or published with the intent to misrepresent its authentic-
     8  ity;
     9    (c) dissemination or publication of synthetic media depicting a person
    10  or  persons  where  the  person who created the synthetic media received
    11  consent from all persons depicted;
    12    (d) dissemination or publication of  a  fabricated  record  where  the
    13  person  reasonably believes that the dissemination or publication of the
    14  record is necessary to protect themselves from serious bodily injury  or
    15  death; or
    16    (e)  initial  dissemination  or  publication of synthetic media by the
    17  platform or service, provided that the synthetic media was  not  created
    18  by  an  individual  who  is  directly  affiliated  with such platform or
    19  service.
    20    § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
    21  have become a law.