FEC rules on AI in political ads

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC announced that it has corrected its CORES database which had overstated the regulatory fees to be paid by

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC announced that annual regulatory fees must be paid through its CORES database by 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on

After postponing consideration of a proposal (which we wrote about here) from the Republican Commissioners at the Federal Election Commission to reject calls for a rulemaking to look at whether to require that there be labeling of political ads generated by artificial intelligence that falsely depicts a candidate, the AI item is back on

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past two weeks, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC released its Second Report and Order setting the annual regulatory fees that broadcasters must pay for 2024. 

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from this past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC announced that oppositions are due August 27 in response to the National Association of Broadcasters’ petition for reconsideration

The agenda for the Federal Election Commission’s August 15 Open Meeting was released last week, and it contains a proposed Notification of Disposition of the FEC’s review of a July 2023 petition for rulemaking filed by the advocacy group Public Citizen seeking to initiate a proceeding to address the use of Artificial Intelligence in campaign communications.  The FEC asked for public comment on that petition last August (see our article here).  The draft Notification and accompanying memorandum circulated by the three Republican members of the FEC proposes to deny the request to initiate such a proceeding.  As the FEC has equal representation of Democrats and Republicans, even if all of the Democrats disagree with the position advocated in the Notification, it would appear that the proposal would still be on hold for the foreseeable future as there would not be a majority of Commissioners necessary to move it forward.

The Public Citizen petition asked that the FEC “clarify that the [Federal Election Campaign Act’s prohibitions] against ‘fraudulent misrepresentation’ (52 U.S.C. § 30124) applies to deliberately deceptive AI-produced content in campaign communications.”  The draft Notification finds that the FEC lacks the statutory authority to initiate the proceeding – that the fraudulent misrepresentation language applies to a misrepresentation of a sponsor of a campaign ad, not to misleading messages in the ads themselves.  The Notice also contends that the FEC is “ill-positioned to take on the issue of AI regulation and does not have the technical expertise required to design appropriately tailored rules for AI-generated advertising.”  The draft notice suggests that, before any action is taken by the FEC, Congress must first authorize it.   Continue Reading FEC Appears Ready to Take a Pass on Regulating AI in Political Ads

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from this past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that October 4 is the deadline for EAS Participants to file

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • In the last two license renewal cycles, more fines have been issued for full-power stations violating the requirement that they

The Federal Election Commission last week voted to open for public comment the question of whether to start a rulemaking proceeding to declare that “deepfakes” or other AI technology used to generate false images of a candidate doing or saying something, without a disclosure that the image, audio or video, was generated by artificial intelligence and portrays fictitious statements and actions, violates the FEC’s rules.  The FEC rule that is allegedly being violated is one that prohibits a candidate or committee from fraudulently misrepresentating that they are “speaking or writing or otherwise acting for or on behalf of any other candidate or political party or employee or agent thereof on a matter which is damaging to such other candidate or political party or employee or agent thereof.”  In other words, the FEC rule prohibits one candidate or committee from falsely issuing statements in the name of an opposing candidate or committee.  The FEC approved the Draft Notice of Availability to initiate the request for public comment on a second rulemaking petition filed by the group Public Citizen, asking for this policy to be adopted.  This Notice of Availability was published in the Federal Register today, initiating the comment period.  The deadline for comments is October 16, 2023.  This is just a preliminary request for comments as to the merits of the Public Citizen petition, and whether the FEC should move forward with a more formal proceeding.

As we wrote in an article a few weeks ago, the FEC had a very similar Notice of Availability before it last month and took no action, after apparently expressing concerns that the FEC does not have statutory authority to regulate deliberately deceptive AI-produced content in campaign ads.  Apparently Public Citizen’s second petition adequately addressed that concern.  The Notice published in the Federal Register today at least starts the process, although it may be some time before any formal rules are adopted.  As we noted in our article, a few states have already taken action to require disclosures about AI content used in political ads, particularly those in state and local elections.  Thus far, there is no similar federal requirement. Continue Reading FEC Asks for Public Comment on Petition for Rulemaking on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Political Ads

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

  • The FCC released its Report and Order setting the annual regulatory fees that broadcasters must pay for 2023. The Order