Minnesota bill amendment aims to place harsher penalties on non-consentual "Deepfake" political messaging

(St Paul, MN) -- Minnesota lawmakers are aiming to take on false information by strengthening laws against deep fake video and audio.

In the 2023 legislative session, Minnesota lawmakers passed a bill criminalizing non-consentual deep fake videos. The legislation proposed by Representative Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids) aims to strengthen that law, according to a release by the Minnesota House of Representatives. 

• add forfeiture of nomination or office if a candidate is convicted of a deepfake crime;
• modify the deepfake definition to include video, images, or recordings that a reasonable person would “have a fundamentally and materially different understanding of the substance or meaning of the content of the speech or conduct compared to the unaltered, original version”;
• add political party nominating convention; presidential nomination primary, state, local or special primary; and special election to statute that the crime must occur 90 days before a primary or general election; and
• permit equitable relief, in addition to injunctive relief, against a person violating the law.

“Since that [original] legislation was passed the need to be aggressive in combating deepfakes has been illustrated pretty dramatically in our presidential election,” said Rep. Zack Stephenson (DFL-Coon Rapids). “Deepfakes are here, people are doing them, and we need to be very real about how we address them.”

The decision comes after a robocall circulated in the New Hampshire presidential primary claiming to be Joe Biden, telling people “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election.” 

“AI, which powers deepfakes, is not in and of itself a threat to our elections or our democracy, but it is an emerging and powerful amplifier of existing threats, such as disinformation,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon in a statement.

Representative Paul Torkelson (R-Hanska) attempted to remove the enhanced penalties from the bill, but that was later struck down.