Washington State Broadly Criminalizes All Malicious Deepfakes, Expanding On Existing Deepfake Regulation

On April 16, Washington state added a new law to the growing patchwork of state, federal and international laws aimed at curbing the malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes. The law is the first of its kind in the United States to broadly provide for criminal liability for all malicious deepfakes, not just sexual or political deepfakes.

SHB 1205

Effective July 27, SHB 1205 amends Washington's second-degree criminal impersonation statute to prohibit the knowing distribution of a "forged digital likeness" of another person as genuine visual or audio content performed with the intent to defraud, harass, threaten or intimidate another or for any other unlawful purpose.