House File 2549 - Reprinted HOUSE FILE 2549 BY COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC GROWTH AND TECHNOLOGY (SUCCESSOR TO HSB 599) (As Amended and Passed by the House March 6, 2024 ) A BILL FOR An Act relating to the conduct of elections, including the use 1 of artificial intelligence and deceptive statements, and 2 providing penalties. 3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 4 HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md

H.F. 2549 Section 1. NEW SECTION . 52.7 Use of artificial intelligence 1 prohibited. 2 1. Automatic tabulating equipment, ballot marking devices, 3 and optical scan voting systems approved for use in this state 4 shall not utilize artificial intelligence. 5 2. For the purposes of this section, “artificial 6 intelligence” means a machine-based system that can, for a 7 given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, 8 recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual 9 environments. 10 Sec. 2. Section 68A.405, Code 2024, is amended by adding the 11 following new subsections: 12 NEW SUBSECTION . 5. a. Published material generated through 13 the use of artificial intelligence and designed to expressly 14 advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a candidate 15 for public office or the passage or defeat of a ballot issue 16 must contain a disclosure on the published material that the 17 published material was generated using artificial intelligence. 18 The disclosure must include the words “this material was 19 generated using artificial intelligence”. 20 b. Notwithstanding section 68A.701, a person who violates 21 this subsection is guilty of a simple misdemeanor punishable by 22 confinement for no more than ninety days and a fine of not more 23 than one thousand dollars. 24 c. For the purposes of this subsection, “artificial 25 intelligence” means as defined in section 52.7. 26 d. The board shall adopt rules for the implementation of 27 this subsection. 28 NEW SUBSECTION . 6. a. Published material designed to 29 expressly advocate the nomination, election, or defeat of a 30 candidate for public office or the passage or defeat of a 31 ballot issue that includes a materially deceptive depiction 32 of a candidate must include a statement that the published 33 material has been manipulated. The disclosure must include 34 the words “this material has been manipulated to include a 35 -1- HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md 1/ 5

H.F. 2549 materially deceptive depiction of a candidate”. 1 b. For the purposes of this subsection, published material 2 is materially deceptive if it has been manipulated to change 3 the physical appearance of a candidate or depict a candidate 4 performing an act that did not occur, or, in the case of 5 an image, if it has been altered to change the saturation, 6 brightness, contrast, color, or other visible quality of an 7 image of a candidate. 8 c. Notwithstanding section 68A.701, a person who violates 9 this subsection is guilty of a simple misdemeanor punishable by 10 confinement for no more than ninety days and a fine of not more 11 than one thousand dollars. 12 d. The board shall adopt rules for the implementation of 13 this subsection. 14 Sec. 3. NEW SECTION . 68A.507 Synthetic media —— 15 restrictions —— penalties. 16 1. For the purposes of this section: 17 a. “Creator” means a person who utilizes or deploys 18 artificial intelligence, as defined in section 52.7, or other 19 digital technology to generate synthetic media. 20 b. “Deceptive and fraudulent deepfake” means synthetic media 21 that depicts a candidate or political party with the intent to 22 injure the reputation of the candidate or party or otherwise 23 deceive a voter and that does any of the following: 24 (1) Appears to a reasonable person to depict a real 25 individual saying or doing something that did not actually 26 occur in reality. 27 (2) Provides a reasonable person a fundamentally different 28 understanding or impression of an appearance, action, or speech 29 than a reasonable person would have from an unaltered, original 30 version of an image, audio recording, or video recording. 31 c. “Synthetic media” means an image, an audio recording, 32 or a video recording of an individual’s appearance, action, or 33 speech that has been created or intentionally manipulated with 34 the use of generative adversarial network techniques or other 35 -2- HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md 2/ 5

H.F. 2549 digital technology in a manner to create a realistic but false 1 image, audio, or video. 2 2. Except as provided in subsection 3, a person shall 3 not, within ninety days of an election at which a candidate 4 will appear on a ballot, distribute a synthetic media message 5 that the person knows or should have known is a deceptive and 6 fraudulent deepfake of a candidate or party on the ballot. 7 3. Subsection 2 does not apply if the synthetic media 8 includes a disclosure stating that the image, audio, or video 9 has been manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence. 10 a. For visual media, the text of the disclosure shall appear 11 in a size that is easily readable by the average viewer and 12 no smaller than the largest font size of other text appearing 13 in the visual media. If the visual media does not include 14 any other text, the disclosure shall appear in a size that is 15 easily readable by the average viewer. For visual media that 16 is video, the disclosure shall appear for the duration of the 17 video. The disclosure must include the words “this image or 18 video was manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence”. 19 b. For media that consists of audio only, the disclosure 20 shall be read in a clearly spoken manner and in a pitch that can 21 be easily heard by the average listener, at the beginning of 22 the audio, at the end of the audio, and, if the audio is greater 23 than two minutes in length, interspersed within the audio at 24 intervals of not greater than two minutes each. The disclosure 25 must include the words “this audio was manipulated or generated 26 by artificial intelligence”. 27 4. This section does not apply to a radio or television 28 broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television 29 operator, programmer, or producer, that broadcasts a deceptive 30 and fraudulent deepfake prohibited by this section as part of 31 a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary, or 32 on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events, if the broadcast 33 clearly acknowledges through content or a disclosure, in a 34 manner that can be easily heard or read by the average listener 35 -3- HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md 3/ 5

H.F. 2549 or viewer, that there are questions about the authenticity of 1 the audio or visual media. 2 5. This section does not apply to a radio or television 3 broadcasting station, including a cable or satellite television 4 operator, programmer, or producer, when it is paid to broadcast 5 a deceptive and fraudulent deepfake and has made a good-faith 6 effort to establish the depiction is not a deceptive and 7 fraudulent deepfake. 8 6. This section does not apply to an internet site or a 9 regularly published newspaper, magazine, or other periodical 10 of general circulation, including an internet or electronic 11 publication, that routinely carries news and commentary of 12 general interest, and that publishes audio or visual media 13 prohibited by this section, if the publication clearly states 14 that the media does not accurately represent the speech or 15 conduct of the candidate. This section also does not apply 16 to an interactive computer service provider, cloud service 17 provider, or internet service provider. 18 7. This section does not apply to audio or visual media that 19 constitutes satire or parody. 20 8. Notwithstanding section 68A.701: 21 a. A candidate whose appearance, action, or speech is 22 depicted through the use of a deceptive and fraudulent deepfake 23 in violation of subsection 2 may seek injunctive or other 24 equitable relief prohibiting the publication of such deceptive 25 and fraudulent deepfake. 26 b. A person who violates subsection 2 is guilty of a simple 27 misdemeanor punishable by confinement for no more than ninety 28 days and a fine of not more than one thousand dollars. 29 c. A person who violates subsection 2 with the intent 30 to cause violence or bodily harm is guilty of a serious 31 misdemeanor. 32 d. A person who violates subsection 2 within five years of 33 a prior conviction for a violation of subsection 2 is guilty 34 of a class “D” felony. 35 -4- HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md 4/ 5

H.F. 2549 e. A creator of a material distributed in violation of 1 subsection 2 is guilty of a simple misdemeanor punishable by 2 confinement for no more than ninety days and a fine of not more 3 than one thousand dollars. 4 9. The board shall adopt rules for the implementation of 5 this section. 6 -5- HF 2549 (2) 90 ss/ns/md 5/ 5