Maryland Election Misinformation, Disinformation, and Deepfakes Act (SB 141 / Chapter 444 of 2026)

Properties

kind: law
target: likeness
jurisdiction: US, Maryland
mechanism: Requires the State Administrator of Elections to respond to credible reports of election misinformation or disinformation, including deepfakes, by publicly correcting the record and, where warranted, seeking court orders for removal; separately makes it a criminal misdemeanor to knowingly or with reckless disregard create, use, or disseminate a deepfake to produce materially false election information, with carve-outs for satire, parody, and disclosed broadcast or print use.
status: in-effect
owns: Election-disinformation-specific deepfake statute with a state-agency correction and takedown role, distinct from tn-elvis-act's commercial right-of-publicity focus; targets political and electoral deepfakes rather than entertainment or fraud use.
source: Maryland General Assembly, SB 141 (2026) bill page
notes: Signed by Gov. Wes Moore May 12, 2026; effective June 1, 2026. Penalties reported elsewhere as up to $5,000 in fines or up to 5 years imprisonment, not independently confirmed against the chaptered text. Whether the statute's 'deepfake' definition explicitly covers cloned audio as well as image/video was not confirmed, so target is left as 'likeness' rather than assumed to include voice. Predates the 2026-07-11 window; included as backfill, one of 30-plus state election-deepfake statutes nationally per secondary trackers, selected here as a distinct-mechanism example rather than an exhaustive state sweep.

Provenance

Source: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/sb0141?ys=2026RS

Properties

kind

law

target

likeness

jurisdiction

US, Maryland

mechanism

Requires the State Administrator of Elections to respond to credible reports of election misinformation or disinformation, including deepfakes, by publicly correcting the record and, where warranted, seeking court orders for removal; separately makes it a criminal misdemeanor to knowingly or with reckless disregard create, use, or disseminate a deepfake to produce materially false election information, with carve-outs for satire, parody, and disclosed broadcast or print use.

status

in-effect

owns

Election-disinformation-specific deepfake statute with a state-agency correction and takedown role, distinct from tn-elvis-act's commercial right-of-publicity focus; targets political and electoral deepfakes rather than entertainment or fraud use.

source

Maryland General Assembly, SB 141 (2026) bill page

notes

Signed by Gov. Wes Moore May 12, 2026; effective June 1, 2026. Penalties reported elsewhere as up to $5,000 in fines or up to 5 years imprisonment, not independently confirmed against the chaptered text. Whether the statute's 'deepfake' definition explicitly covers cloned audio as well as image/video was not confirmed, so target is left as 'likeness' rather than assumed to include voice. Predates the 2026-07-11 window; included as backfill, one of 30-plus state election-deepfake statutes nationally per secondary trackers, selected here as a distinct-mechanism example rather than an exhaustive state sweep.