AI Frontier Institute

Relating To Deepfakes.

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Hawaii Senate Bill 1156 (S.B. No. 1156, 33rd Legislature, 2025) amends Chapter 707 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes by adding a new section to Part V that creates the criminal offense of unlawful creation or distribution of a sexually explicit deepfake. Under Section 1, a person commits this offense if they knowingly and without the depicted individual's consent create, distribute, exhibit, exchange, or offer to distribute, exhibit, or exchange a deepfake showing an individual nude or engaged in sexual conduct. The offense is classified as a misdemeanor. The bill defines 'deepfake' as any audio or visual media in electronic format—including motion picture film or video—created or altered so that a reasonable observer would falsely believe it is an authentic record of the depicted individual's actual speech or conduct. Excluded from the definition are materials with political, public interest, or newsworthy value (including satire, parody, commentary, and criticism), as well as content that includes a clear disclosure visible throughout the recording indicating it is not a real event. 'Distribute' means publishing or making content available to the public, but does not include minor alterations such as trimming length, as long as such alterations do not knowingly remove disclosures. 'Sexual conduct' is broadly defined to include actual or simulated intercourse, masturbation, bestiality, penetration, sadomasochistic abuse, and lascivious exhibition of genitalia. No liability attaches for activity protected by the First Amendment. The Act takes effect upon approval per Section 3.

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