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Law / United States / Maine

Synthetic media disclosure in campaign advertising

21-A M.R.S. § 1014, sub-§ 5-C

A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.

Commencement not set.

An AI transparency rule binding public and private bodies.

As of 6 September 2026.

What it requires

  • This measure is enacted and signed, but its commencement date is not confirmed against a primary source as of the date below; treat it as a duty to prepare for.
  • Include the disclosure THIS COMMUNICATION CONTAINS AUDIO, VIDEO AND/OR IMAGES THAT HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED OR ALTERED on a political public communication that already requires a disclosure under Maine campaign-finance law, whenever it contains synthetic media of a candidate.
  • Synthetic media here means an image, audio recording, or video recording of a candidate that is likely to deceive a reasonable person about what the candidate said or did, or that gives a materially different impression than the unaltered original; satire and parody are excluded.
  • A violation may draw a civil penalty of up to 500% of the expenditure on the communication, higher than the standard 100% cap for other disclosure violations under this section.
  • A broadcaster or newspaper is liable only if it broadcasts or publishes the communication with actual knowledge that it contains synthetic media.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureNo

Who enforces it

Enforcement body

Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, with the Office of the Attorney General authorized to bring a civil action in Superior Court for injunctive relief against a continuing violation.

What it reaches

Obligation class

Content labelling

What this law does

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.

Whenever a political public communication that already requires a disclosure under Maine campaign-finance law contains synthetic media of a candidate, the communication must also carry the words THIS COMMUNICATION CONTAINS AUDIO, VIDEO AND/OR IMAGES THAT HAVE BEEN MANIPULATED OR ALTERED.

Synthetic media is defined as an image, audio recording, or video recording of a candidate that, in a manner likely to deceive a reasonable person, depicts the candidate saying or doing something the candidate did not say or do, or that has been manipulated to give a materially different impression of the candidate's appearance, action, or speech than the unaltered original; satire, parody, and technical clarity edits that do not change the impression given are excluded.

A violation of this subsection carries a civil penalty of up to 500% of the expenditure on the offending communication, compared with 100% for other disclosure violations under the same section, and a broadcaster or newspaper is liable only if it publishes or broadcasts with actual knowledge that the communication contains synthetic media. Enacted as LD 517 (P.L. 2026, ch. 593) and signed by the Governor on March 23, 2026.

When LexLint raises it

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Read the law

chaptered Public Law text (P.L. 2026, ch. 593), Maine Legislature (LD 517)

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