REAL Political Advertisements Act

II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1596 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 15, 2023 Ms. KLOBUCHAR (for herself, Mr. BOOKER, and Mr. BENNET) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and 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 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •S 1596 IS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Require the Exposure 2 of AI–Led Political Advertisements Act’’ or the ‘‘REAL 3 Political Advertisements Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 5 It is the sense of Congress that— 6 (1) the revolutionary innovations in generative 7 artificial intelligence (generative AI) and the poten- 8 tial for their use in exacerbating and spreading mis- 9 information and disinformation at scale and with un- 10 precedented speed requires Congress and the Fed- 11 eral Election Commission to take action to protect 12 against the use of generative AI that harms our de- 13 mocracy; and 14 (2) free and fair elections require transparency 15 and accountability, which allow the public to make 16 informed decisions and hold public officials account- 17 able. 18 SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF DEFINITION OF ELECTIONEERING 19 COMMUNICATION. 20 (a) EXPANSION TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.— 21 (1) APPLICATION TO QUALIFIED INTERNET AND 22 DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.— 23 (A) IN GENERAL.—Subparagraph (A) of 24 section 304(f)(3) of the Federal Election Cam- 25 paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(A)) 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •S 1596 IS 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 the Federal Election Campaign Act of 7 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)) is amended by 8 adding at the end the following new subpara- 9 graph: 10 ‘‘(D) QUALIFIED INTERNET OR DIGITAL 11 COMMUNICATION.—The term ‘qualified internet 12 or digital communication’ means any commu- 13 nication that is placed or promoted for a fee on 14 an online platform.’’. 15 (C) NONAPPLICATION OF RELEVANT ELEC- 16 TORATE TO ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.—Sec- 17 tion 304(f)(3)(A)(i)(III) of the Federal Election 18 Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 19 30104(f)(3)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by striking 20 ‘‘a communication’’ and inserting ‘‘any broad- 21 cast, cable, or satellite communication’’. 22 (2) NEWS EXEMPTION.—Section 23 304(f)(3)(B)(i) of the Federal Election Campaign 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:58 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 1596 IS Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30104(f)(3)(B)(i)) is 1 amended to read as follows: 2 ‘‘(i) a communication appearing in a 3 news story, commentary, or editorial dis- 4 tributed through the facilities of any 5 broadcasting station or any online or dig- 6 ital newspaper, magazine, publication, peri- 7 odical, blog, or platform, unless such 8 broadcasting, online, or digital facilities are 9 owned or controlled by any political party, 10 political committee, or candidate;’’. 11 (b) DEFINITION OF ONLINE PLATFORM.—Section 12 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 13 U.S.C. 30101) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 14 lowing: 15 ‘‘(27) ONLINE PLATFORM.— 16 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘online plat- 17 form’ means any public-facing website, web ap- 18 plication, or digital application (including a so- 19 cial network, ad network, or search engine) 20 that— 21 ‘‘(i)(I) sells qualified political adver- 22 tisements; and 23 ‘‘(II) has 50,000,000 or more unique 24 monthly United States visitors or users for 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 5 •S 1596 IS a majority of months during the preceding 1 12 months; or 2 ‘‘(ii) is a third-party advertising ven- 3 dor that has 50,000,000 or more unique 4 monthly United States visitors in the ag- 5 gregate on any advertisement space that it 6 has sold or bought for a majority of 7 months during the preceding 12 months, 8 as measured by an independent digital rat- 9 ings service accredited by the Media Rat- 10 ings Council (or its successor). 11 ‘‘(B) QUALIFIED POLITICAL ADVERTISE- 12 MENT.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 13 term ‘qualified political advertisement’ means 14 any advertisement (including search engine 15 marketing, display advertisements, video adver- 16 tisements, native advertisements, and sponsor- 17 ships) that— 18 ‘‘(i) is made by or on behalf of a can- 19 didate; or 20 ‘‘(ii) communicates a message relating 21 to any political matter of national impor- 22 tance, including— 23 ‘‘(I) a candidate; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 6 •S 1596 IS ‘‘(II) any election to Federal of- 1 fice; or 2 ‘‘(III) a national legislative issue 3 of public importance. 4 ‘‘(C) THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING VENDOR 5 DEFINED.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 6 term ‘third-party advertising vendor’ includes 7 any third-party advertising vendor network, ad- 8 vertising agency, advertiser, or third-party ad- 9 vertisement serving company that buys and 10 sells advertisement space on behalf of unaffili- 11 ated third-party websites, search engines, dig- 12 ital applications, or social media sites.’’. 13 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 14 this section shall apply with respect to any communication 15 made on or after January 1, 2024, and shall take effect 16 without regard to whether or not the Federal Election 17 Commission has promulgated regulations to carry out 18 such amendments. 19 SEC. 4. REQUIRING DISCLAIMERS ON ADVERTISEMENTS 20 CONTAINING CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTI- 21 FICIAL INTELLIGENCE. 22 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 318 of the Federal 23 Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120) is 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 1596 IS amended by adding at the end the following new sub- 1 section: 2 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL DISCLAIMER FOR COMMUNICATIONS 3 CONTAINING CONTENT GENERATED BY ARTIFICIAL IN- 4 TELLIGENCE.— 5 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—If a communication de- 6 scribed in subsection (a) contains an image or video 7 footage that was generated in whole or in part with 8 the use of artificial intelligence (generative AI), the 9 communication shall include, in a clear and con- 10 spicuous manner, a statement that the communica- 11 tion contains such an image or footage. 12 ‘‘(2) SAFE HARBOR FOR DETERMINING CLEAR 13 AND CONSPICUOUS MANNER.—A statement required 14 under this subsection shall be considered to be made 15 in a clear and conspicuous manner if the statement 16 meets the following requirements: 17 ‘‘(A) TEXT OR GRAPHIC COMMUNICA- 18 TIONS.—In the case of a text or graphic com- 19 munication, the statement— 20 ‘‘(i) appears in letters at least as large 21 as the majority of the text in the commu- 22 nication; and 23 ‘‘(ii) meets the requirements of para- 24 graphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 8 •S 1596 IS ‘‘(B) AUDIO COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 1 case of an audio communication, the statement 2 is spoken in a clearly audible and intelligible 3 manner at the beginning or end of the commu- 4 nication and lasts at least 3 seconds. 5 ‘‘(C) VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 6 case of a video communication that also in- 7 cludes audio, the statement— 8 ‘‘(i) is included at either the beginning 9 or the end of the communication; and 10 ‘‘(ii) is made both in— 11 ‘‘(I) a written format that meets 12 the requirements of subparagraph (A) 13 and appears for at least 4 seconds; 14 and 15 ‘‘(II) an audible format that 16 meets the requirements of subpara- 17 graph (B). 18 ‘‘(D) OTHER COMMUNICATIONS.—In the 19 case of any other type of communication, the 20 statement is at least as clear and conspicuous 21 as the statement specified in subparagraph (A), 22 (B), or (C). 23 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 120 days 24 after the date of enactment of the Require the Expo- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 9 •S 1596 IS sure of AI–Led Political Advertisements Act, the 1 Commission shall promulgate a regulation to carry 2 out this subsection, including— 3 ‘‘(A) criteria for determining whether an 4 advertisement contains an image or video foot- 5 age created through generative artificial intel- 6 ligence; 7 ‘‘(B) requirements for the contents of the 8 statement required under paragraph (1); and 9 ‘‘(C) a definition of content generated by 10 artificial intelligence that considers current and 11 future uses of artificial intelligence and similar 12 technologies that have a high risk for use in 13 creating and spreading misinformation or 14 disinformation about candidates, elections, and 15 issues of national concern.’’. 16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 17 this section shall apply with respect to any communication 18 described in section 318(a) of the Federal Election Cam- 19 paign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30120(a)) made on or after 20 January 1, 2024, and shall take effect without regard to 21 whether or not the Federal Election Commission has pro- 22 mulgated regulations to carry out such amendments. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 10 •S 1596 IS SEC. 5. REPORTS. 1 Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment 2 of this Act, and biannually thereafter, the Federal Elec- 3 tion Commission shall submit a report to Congress that 4 includes— 5 (1) an assessment of the compliance with and 6 the enforcement of the requirements of section 7 318(e) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 8 1971, as added by this Act; 9 (2) recommendations for any modifications to 10 such section to assist in carrying out its purposes; 11 and 12 (3) the identification of ways to bring further 13 transparency and accountability to political adver- 14 tisements. 15 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:28 May 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1596.IS S1596 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB