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Bill would expand deepfake ban in election season to cover non‑AI synthetic media
Summary
HB 630 would broaden New Hampshire’s 2024 law on AI-generated deepfakes to include synthetic media created with any digital technology, not only generative AI. Tech experts and voting-rights groups urged support, saying modern manipulation tools don’t rely exclusively on AI.
Representative Tom Corman, a former Dartmouth computer-science professor, introduced HB 630 to expand language in RSA 664:14-c (the 2024 law) so that the election‑season prohibition on deceptive deepfakes covers synthetic media created with any digital technology, not only artificial intelligence or generative AI.
Corman told the committee last year’s statute defines “synthetic media” but only prohibits deepfakes generated with AI, leaving room for realistic fakes made with other tools (for example, advanced audio or image editing). He said the change would close that gap.
Professor Hany Farid, a digital-media forensics expert at UC Berkeley, provided a written statement urging passage and arguing that “precautions against election interference should focus on the malicious content and not on the specific mechanism or technique used to create that content.” Farid said non‑AI tools can produce convincing fakes and that the definition should include “any digital technology that can produce synthetic media.”
Open Democracy’s executive director and other testifiers supported the bill and said the change requires disclosure rather than banning satire or media shown for news coverage. The committee heard questions about definitions and whether the bill risks duplicating or overlapping existing laws; no committee action was taken during the hearing.
