REAL Political Advertisements Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3044 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide further transparency and accountability for the use of content that is generated by artificial intelligence (generative AI) in political advertisements by requiring such advertisements to include a statement within the contents of the advertisements if generative AI was used to generate any image or video footage in the advertisements, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 2, 2023 Ms. CLARKE of New York introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide further transparency and accountability for the use of content that is generated by artificial intelligence (generative AI) in political advertisements by requiring such advertisements to include a statement within the contents of the advertisements if generative AI was used to generate any image or video footage in the advertise- ments, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 3044 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Require the Exposure 2 of AI–Led Political Advertisements Act’’ or the ‘‘REAL 3 Political Advertisements Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 (1) the revolutionary innovations in generative 7 artificial intelligence (generative AI) and the poten- 8 tial for their use in exacerbating and spreading mis- 9 information and disinformation at scale and with un- 10 precedented speed requires Congress and the Fed- 11 eral Election Commission to take action to protect 12 against the use of generative AI that harms our de- 13 mocracy; and 14 (2) free and fair elections require transparency 15 and accountability, which allow the public to make 16 informed decisions and hold public officials account- 17 able. 18 SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ELECTIONEERING 19 COMMUNICATION. 20 (a) EXPANSION TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.— 21 (1) APPLICATION TO QUALIFIED INTERNET AND 22 DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.— 23 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) of 24 section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election Cam- 25 paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 3044 IH is amended by striking ‘‘or satellite communica- 1 tion’’ each place it appears in clauses (i) and 2 (ii) and inserting ‘‘satellite, or qualified internet 3 or digital communication’’. 4 (B) QUALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 5 COMMUNICATION.—Paragraph (3) of section 6 304(f) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)) is 7 amended by adding at the end the following 8 new subparagraph: 9 ‘‘(D) QUALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 10 COMMUNICATION.—The term ‘qualified internet 11 or digital communication’ means any commu- 12 nication which is placed or promoted for a fee 13 on an online platform.’’. 14 (2) NONAPPLICATION OF RELEVANT ELEC- 15 TORATE TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.—Section 16 304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 17 30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by inserting ‘‘any 18 broadcast, cable, or satellite’’ before ‘‘communica- 19 tion’’. 20 (3) NEWS EXEMPTION.—Section 21 304(f)(3)(B)(i) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 22 30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is amended to read as follows: 23 ‘‘(i) a communication appearing in a 24 news story, commentary, or editorial dis- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 3044 IH tributed through the facilities of any 1 broadcasting station or any online or dig- 2 ital newspaper, magazine, publication, peri- 3 odical, blog, or platform, unless such 4 broadcasting, online, or digital facilities are 5 owned or controlled by any political party, 6 political committee, or candidate;’’. 7 (b) DEFINITION OF ONLINE PLATFORM.—Section 8 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101) is amended by adding 9 at the end the following: 10 ‘‘(27) ONLINE PLATFORM.— 11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘online plat- 12 form’ means any public-facing website, web ap- 13 plication, or digital application (including a so- 14 cial network, ad network, or search engine) 15 which— 16 ‘‘(i)(I) sells qualified political adver- 17 tisements; and 18 ‘‘(II) has 50,000,000 or more unique 19 monthly United States visitors or users for 20 a majority of months during the preceding 21 12 months; or 22 ‘‘(ii) is a third-party advertising ven- 23 dor that has 50,000,000 or more unique 24 monthly United States visitors in the ag- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 3044 IH gregate on any advertisement space that it 1 has sold or bought for a majority of 2 months during the preceding 12 months, 3 as measured by an independent digital rat- 4 ings service accredited by the Media Rat- 5 ings Council (or its successor). 6 ‘‘(B) QUALIFIED POLITICAL ADVERTISE- 7 MENT.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 8 term ‘qualified political advertisement’ means 9 any advertisement (including search engine 10 marketing, display advertisements, video adver- 11 tisements, native advertisements, and sponsor- 12 ships) that— 13 ‘‘(i) is made by or on behalf of a can- 14 didate; or 15 ‘‘(ii) communicates a message relating 16 to any political matter of national impor- 17 tance, including— 18 ‘‘(I) a candidate; 19 ‘‘(II) any election to Federal of- 20 fice; or 21 ‘‘(III) a national legislative issue 22 of public importance. 23 ‘‘(C) THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING VENDOR 24 DEFINED.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 3044 IH term ‘third-party advertising vendor’ includes 1 any third-party advertising vendor network, ad- 2 vertising agency, advertiser, or third-party ad- 3 vertisement serving company that buys and 4 sells advertisement space on behalf of unaffili- 5 ated third-party websites, search engines, dig- 6 ital applications, or social media sites.’’. 7 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 8 this section shall apply with respect to communications 9 made on or after January 1, 2024, and shall take effect 10 without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 11 Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 12 such amendments. 13 SEC. 4. REQUIRING DISCLAIMERS ON ADVERTISEMENTS 14 CONTAINING CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTI- 15 FICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 16 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 318 of the Federal 17 Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120) is 18 amended by adding at the end the following new sub- 19 section: 20 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL DISCLAIMER FOR COMMUNICATIONS 21 CONTAINING CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL IN- 22 TELLIGENCE.— 23 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—If a communication de- 24 scribed in subsection (a) contains an image or video 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 3044 IH footage which was generated in whole or in part with 1 the use of artificial intelligence (generative AI), the 2 communication shall include, in a clear and con- 3 spicuous manner, a statement that the communica- 4 tion contains such an image or footage. 5 ‘‘(2) SAFE HARBOR FOR DETERMINING CLEAR 6 AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER.—A statement required 7 under this subsection shall be considered to be made 8 in a clear and conspicuous manner if the statement 9 meets the following requirements: 10 ‘‘(A) TEXT OR GRAPHIC COMMUNICA- 11 TIONS.—In the case of a text or graphic com- 12 munication, the statement— 13 ‘‘(i) appears in letters at least as large 14 as the majority of the text in the commu- 15 nication; and 16 ‘‘(ii) meets the requirements of para- 17 graphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c). 18 ‘‘(B) AUDIO COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 19 case of an audio communication, the statement 20 is spoken in a clearly audible and intelligible 21 manner at the beginning or end of the commu- 22 nication and lasts at least 3 seconds. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •HR 3044 IH ‘‘(C) VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 1 case of a video communication which also in- 2 cludes audio, the statement— 3 ‘‘(i) is included at either the beginning 4 or the end of the communication; and 5 ‘‘(ii) is made both in— 6 ‘‘(I) a written format that meets 7 the requirements of subparagraph (A) 8 and appears for at least 4 seconds; 9 and 10 ‘‘(II) an audible format that 11 meets the requirements of subpara- 12 graph (B). 13 ‘‘(D) OTHER COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 14 case of any other type of communication, the 15 statement is at least as clear and conspicuous 16 as the statement specified in subparagraph (A), 17 (B), or (C). 18 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 120 days 19 after the date of the enactment of the REAL Polit- 20 ical Advertisements Act, the Commission shall pro- 21 mulgate a regulation to carry out this subsection, in- 22 cluding— 23 ‘‘(A) criteria for determining whether an 24 advertisement contains an image or video foot- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •HR 3044 IH age created through generative artificial intel- 1 ligence; 2 ‘‘(B) requirements for the contents of the 3 statement required under paragraph (1); and 4 ‘‘(C) a definition of content generated by 5 artificial intelligence that considers current and 6 future uses of artificial intelligence and similar 7 technologies that have a high risk for use in 8 creating and spreading misinformation or 9 disinformation about candidates, elections, and 10 issues of national concern.’’. 11 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 12 this section shall apply with respect to communications 13 made on or after January 1, 2024, and shall take effect 14 without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 15 Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 16 such amendments. 17 SEC. 5. REPORTS. 18 Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact- 19 ment of this Act, and biannually thereafter, the Federal 20 Election Commission shall submit a report to Congress 21 which includes— 22 (1) an assessment of the compliance with and 23 the enforcement of the requirements of section 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •HR 3044 IH 318(e) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1 1971, as added by this Act; 2 (2) recommendations for any modifications to 3 such section to assist in carrying out its purposes; 4 and 5 (3) the identification of ways to bring further 6 transparency and accountability to political adver- 7 tisements. 8 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3044.IH H3044 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB