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State panel warned deepfakes complicate political advertising; disclosure rules, new law offer limited remedies
Summary
At a Feb. 14 State Government & Tribal Relations Committee work session, the Public Disclosure Commission outlined how artificial-intelligence tools and targeted digital advertising can spread misleading political content and described Washington’s recent law creating a private legal remedy for candidates targeted by deepfakes.
At a Feb. 14 work session of the State Government & Tribal Relations Committee, Sean Flynn, general counsel for the Public Disclosure Commission, told legislators that advances in digital advertising and artificial intelligence have made it far harder to counter misinformation in political ads.
Flynn said courts place strong protection on political speech and noted precedents such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Alvarez, which limited government power to criminalize some false statements. He said Washington’s prior effort to bar false political advertising had been narrowed by courts and now reads largely like traditional defamation law.
"The remedy for false speech is…
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