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The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill requiring political advertisements on Wednesday on Wednesday that the disclosure, the image, audio or video recording used have been considerably modified.
Former room speaker Dade Phelan – who endured a political attack dam last year when he re -election and his speakers’ campaigns – said he had the author of the legislation to ensure that voters understand when the documents used in advertisements had been faked, because the use of generative artificial intelligence facilitates the manipulation of the media which could strongly use the conduct or the discourse of a candidate.
“This is the beginning of a new era in ethics where voters need to know what is real and what is not,” said the Republican of Beaumont on the floor of the room. “This AI technology is improving every day. It becomes more inexpensive every day, it will become the standard.”
The bill would require disclosure by office holders, candidates or political committees that have used changed media in advertisements and spend more than $ 100 for political advertising. This would train the Texas Ethics Commission to determine what disclosure would look like, including the police, size and color. The offenders would be accused of an offense of class A.
The bill faced a fierce opposition from the conservatives of the hard line who say that it is a police discourse and could allow the State to encroach people on silly political memes.
“We have an electorate that is informed and we already have platforms where people can speak,” said representative Andy Hopper, R-Decatur. “It is not the role of the government to sit there and to be a police force from the state of nanny to decide.”
The bill was adopted from the House with a vote of 102-40. He now goes to the Senate.
Phelan modified the bill to ensure that an individual would not be punished for modifying the superficial qualities of an image or a video, such as brightness, contrast or color. The legislation excludes companies, radio or television broadcasters, owners of commercial panels, IT services and internet suppliers of responsibility.
“It’s nothing different from what we are currently doing with political advertisements,” said Phelan at home on Wednesday. “You must put” the political announcement paid by “, when you enter this political advertising arena. And all that does is telling you to add disclosure that you use modified media. ”
Legislation is one of the multiple bills of ethics law that Phelan has tabled concerning political advertisements after having endured a primary campaign bruised last year when his district was flooded with sending and advertisements making false statements about him and his political file.
Phelan described how, at one point, his voters were so confused as to the advertisements were real and false that when his main opponent received the approval of President Donald Trump – who really happened – he asked voters to tell him that they did not believe it was true.
“Frankly, my voters, if they cannot say that my opponent has been approved by Donald Trump – which is a very precious approval in our primary policy – when they don’t even believe this is a nice opening,” he said.
It is not known if the bill has enough support to go from the upper chamber.
In March, the Senate unanimously adopted a similar bill linked to the use of false deep videos to influence an election sponsored by the senator of Dallas Nathan Johnson and the Senator Laws Kolkhorst of Brenham. The bill was referred to the Chamber’s election committee but was not provided for a hearing.
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