NYC Council Introduction 12

intro.nyc/0012-2026 2026-2029 Legislative Session
Prohibiting the dissemination of materially deceptive audio or visual media in local elections.
Status: Laid Over in Committee Committee on Governmental Operations, State & Federal Legislation
Sponsored by Julie Menin
Introduced: January 29, 2026

This bill would require disclosure to the Campaign Finance Board when candidates for local elected office or entities making local-election-related independent expenditures create political materials or advertisements when those materials use synthetically generated (i.e. created or modified using AI) content. The person or entity making these political materials must not remove provenance data, a kind of metadata describing the type of generative tool used to create the materials and when such materials were made, from those materials. Once those materials are made, that provenance data or a description of the origins of the materials must be disclosed to the Campaign Finance Board, which must publish that information online. A person failing to disclose this information may be subjected to a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation.