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Political campaign advertisements; synthetic media, penalty.

VA · Legislation · 2026 · HB982

LegislationAI
Introduced

Record updated Feb 18, 2026

Summary

Elections; political campaign advertisements; synthetic media; penalty. Prohibits electioneering communications containing synthetic media, as those terms are defined in the bill, from being published or broadcast without containing the following conspicuously displayed statement: "This message contains synthetic media that has been altered from its original source or artificially generated and may present conduct or speech that did not occur." The bill creates a civil penalty not to exceed $25,000 for a violation of such prohibition and a Class 1 misdemeanor for a willful violation.

Timeline

2026-02-18

H

Left in Committee Privileges and Elections

2026-02-03

H

Subcommittee recommends laying on the table (7-Y 1-N)

2026-01-30

H

Assigned HPE sub: Campaigns and Candidates

2026-01-28

H

Fiscal Impact Statement from Department of Planning and Budget (HB982)

2026-01-13

H

Prefiled and ordered printed; Offered 01-14-2026 26104210D

2026-01-13

H

Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections

Bill Text

Pending

Bill Text is not available yet for this record.

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