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Elections: deceptive audio or visual media.

It became law on Sep 19, 2026.

CA AB 686 · Assembly Bill · 2025–2026

Stage
Became law
Started in
Assembly
Sponsors
2
Latest action
Sep 19, 2026

What it does

Existing law, until January 1, 2027, prohibits a person, committee, or other entity, within 60 days of an election at which a candidate for elective office will appear on the ballot, from distributing with actual malice materially deceptive audio or visual media of the candidate with the intent to injure the candidate's reputation or to deceive a voter into voting for or against the candidate, unless the media includes a disclosure stating that the media has been manipulated, subject to specified exemptions.

Read the full textRead it on the official site

Where it stands

This bill passed and is now law.

  1. Introduced (Done)

  2. Committee (Done)

  3. Floor (Done)

  4. Law (Done)

    Sep 19, 2026

What moved

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Who is involved

Sponsors

The lawmakers who put their names on it, lead sponsors first.

In the news

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Where it goes next

Once a bill is decided, the questions are about what is done with it in California.

Work with this bill

Elections: deceptive audio or visual media. | 52