Law / United States / 
Virginia
HB 2124 (2025), Synthetic Digital Content Act, Ch. 398 (reenactment not satisfied)
Va. HB 2124 (2025 Reg. Sess.), Ch. 398
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.
Withdrawn: no longer proceeding.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- This measure's substantive provisions require reenactment by the 2026 Session of the General Assembly, which the current Code of Virginia does not show occurred, so they do not currently bind anyone; what follows is what they would require.
- Do not use synthetic digital content, meaning content that realistically but falsely depicts a person's appearance, speech, or conduct, to commit a fraud offense; doing so would be a separate Class 1 misdemeanor on top of the underlying offense.
- A person depicted in synthetic digital content used this way could bring a civil action for actual damages and attorney fees.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
This measure's substantive provisions do not currently bind anyone; what follows is what they would require.
The Governor approved HB 2124 as Chapter 398 on March 24, 2025, which would amend Va. Code §§ 8.01-45 and 8.01-46 to extend defamation and insulting-words liability to synthetic digital content (content that realistically but falsely depicts a person's appearance, speech, or conduct) and would add a new § 18.2-213.3 making it a separate Class 1 misdemeanor to use synthetic digital content to commit a fraud offense, with a civil action available to the person depicted.
The Act's own text withholds effect from these substantive provisions unless reenacted by the 2026 Session of the General Assembly. As of the date below, the Code of Virginia's text of § 8.01-45 remains the single, unlettered sentence enacted in 1977, with no synthetic-content definition or lettered subsections, and Title 18.2 carries no section 18.2-213.3, so that reenactment did not occur and the substantive provisions have never taken effect.
The Act's reenactment clause applies only to the provisions of its first enactment, so its second enactment is not conditioned on reenactment. That second enactment directs the Attorney General to convene a work group on enforcement of laws against fraudulent synthetic content and report to specified legislative committees, a reporting duty that binds only the Attorney General's office, not a private developer or deployer.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
official chapter text, Virginia Legislative Information System (Acts of Assembly, Chapter 398)