Regular Session 2023-2024 House Bill 2079 P.N. 2655

PRINTER'S NO. 2655

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

No.

2079

Session of

2024

INTRODUCED BY KHAN, MERCURI, GREEN, MERSKI, PIELLI, PROBST,

HILL-EVANS, KINSEY, FREEMAN, SANCHEZ, BRENNAN, JAMES,

GALLAGHER, MALAGARI, BURGOS, HADDOCK, SHUSTERMAN, CEPEDA-

FREYTIZ, CIRESI, BOROWSKI, OTTEN, PARKER, TWARDZIK, BOYD,

GUENST, GIRAL, POWELL, KINKEAD, KENYATTA, HOHENSTEIN,

DONAHUE, WAXMAN, KIM, DELLOSO, CERRATO, SCOTT AND GERGELY,

MARCH 5, 2024

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT, MARCH 5, 2024

AN ACT

Amending the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), entitled

"An act concerning elections, including general, municipal,

special and primary elections, the nomination of candidates,

primary and election expenses and election contests; creating

and defining membership of county boards of elections;

imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,

courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;

imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,

revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and

repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to

elections," in penalties, providing for the offense of

fraudulent misrepresentation of a candidate; and imposing a

penalty.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. The act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), known

as the Pennsylvania Election Code, is amended by adding a

section to read:

Section 1827.1. Fraudulent Misrepresentation of a

Candidate.--(a) A person or independent expenditure political

action committee is guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation of a

candidate if, within ninety days before an election and with

reckless disregard for the possibility of influencing the

outcome of an election, the person or independent expenditure

political action committee disseminates or causes to be

disseminated a campaign advertisement that contain s an

artificially generated impersonation of a current or former

candidate for public office with the intent to misrepresent the

words, actions or beliefs of the current or former candidate.

(b) Upon conviction of a person that commits an offense

under subsection (a), the court shall:

(1) order the person to withdraw the campaign advertisement

subject to subsection (a); and

(2) for each such campaign advertisement containing a unique

artificially generated impersonation, order the person to pay

for each day the fraudulent misrepresentation is disseminated a

fine not exceeding:

(i) Fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars when the individual

impersonated is a current or former candidate for a municipal

office.

(ii) Fifty thousand ($50,000) dollars when the individual

impersonated is a current or former candidate for State office.

(iii) Two hundred fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars when the

individual impersonated is a current or former candidate for

President of the United States, presidential elector or for the

office of United States Senator or Representative in Congress .

action committee that commits an offense under subsection (a),

the court shall:

(1) order the independent expenditure political action

committee to withdraw the campaign advertisement subject to

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subsection (a); and

(2) for each campaign advertisement containing a unique

artificially generated impersonation, order the independent

expenditure political action committee to pay for each day the

fraudulent misrepresentation is disseminated, a fine double the

amount applied for persons in subsection (b).

(d) It is a defense to a prosecution under subsection (a)

that the person or independent expenditure political action

committee disseminated the campaign advertisement with the

consent of the individual impersonated, provided that the person

or independent expenditure political action committee that

disseminated the campaign advertisement can establish that the

individual impersonated has given their express, written

consent.

(e) A person or independent expenditure political action

committee may be convicted under this section if the victim or

the offender is located within this Commonwealth.

(f) Nothing in this section shall be construed to apply to:

(1) A law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of

the law enforcement officer's official duties.

(2) The following:

(i) A radio or television broadcasting station, including a

cable or satellite television operator, programmer or producer,

that disseminates a campaign advertisement under this section as

part of a bona fide newscast, news interview, news documentary

or on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events, if the radio

or television broadcasting station clearly acknowledges through

content or a disclosure statement, in a manner that can be

easily heard or read by the average listener or viewer, that

there are questions about the authenticity of the campaign

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advertisement.

(ii) A publicly accessible Internet website, or a regularly

published newspaper, magazine or other periodical of general

circulation, including an Internet or electronic publication,

which routinely carries news and commentary of general interest

and that disseminates a campaign advertisement under this

section as part of coverage of bona fide news events, if the

publicly accessible Internet website, regularly published

newspaper, magazine or other periodical of general circulation

clearly acknowledges through content or a disclosure statement,

in a manner that can be easily heard or read by the average

listener or viewer, that there are questions about the

authenticity of the campaign advertisement.

(iii) A radio or television broadcasting station, including

a cable or satellite television operator, programmer or

producer, when it is paid to disseminate a campaign

advertisement authorized under subsection (d).

(g) As used in this section:

"Artificial intelligence" means any of the following:

(1) An artificial system that performs tasks under varying

and unpredictable circumstances without significant human

oversight or that can learn from experience and improve

performance when exposed to data sets.

(2) An artificial system developed in computer software,

physical hardware or other context that solves tasks requiring

human-like perception, cognition, planning, learning,

communication or physical action.

(3) An artificial system designed to think or act like a

human, including cognitive architectures and neural networks.

(4) A set of techniques, including machine learning, that is

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designed to approximate a cognitive task.

(5) An artificial system designed to act rationally,

including an intelligent software agent or embodied robot that

achieves goals using perception, planning, reasoning, learning,

communicating, decision making and acting.

"Artificially generated impersonation" means any form of

media, including text, image, video or sound:

(1) the production of which was wholly dependent upon the

use of artificial intelligence; and

(2) that appears to establish, resemble or represent an

individual in a way that did not occur in reality.

"Disseminate" means to produce, publish, distribute,

broadcast, publicize, display, transmit or otherwise publicly

share.

"Independent expenditure political action committee" means a

political action committee that only receives contributions to

make independent expenditures.

"Person" means any of the following:

(1) A firm, partnership, corporation, limited liability

company, association, organization or similar entity.

(2) A political committee, including a political action

committee, or political party or a member of a political

committee or political party.

(3) An individual employed by an entity under paragraph (1)

or (2).

Section 2. The provisions of this act are severable. If any

provision of this act or its application to any individual or

circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity shall not affect

other provisions or applications of this act which can be given

effect without the invalid provision or application.

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Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.

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