Senate committee advances bill requiring explicit disclosures for synthetic media in election content

The Senate Committee on Government Operations voted March 14 to report S 23 draft 1.2 favorably, advancing a bill that would require explicit disclosures when synthetic media is used in election-related content and create narrow remedies for enforcement.

The committee considered a strike-all amendment and several edits to the bill’s definitions and exemptions before taking the procedural vote. Rick Segal, of the Office of Legislative Council, told the committee, “The bill . . . has a few changes since the last time you saw it. This is draft 1.1 of the committee amendment.”

Committee members focused on how the bill defines synthetic media and how precise the required disclosure must be. The amended definition adds language that the media must be presented “in a manner that . . . appears to a reasonable person to be an authentic recording of an individual.” Segal told senators the statute would require an…