REAL Political Advertisements Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Governance failure

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• False or misleading information
• Pollution of information ecosystem
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses risks related to malicious actors using AI for disinformation (4.1), misinformation and information pollution (3.1, 3.2), and governance mechanisms (6.5). It has minimal coverage of AI system transparency (7.4). The focus is concentrated on preventing AI-generated content from being used to mislead voters in political contexts.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information
• Professional & Technical Services

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector (online platforms, social networks, search engines, digital applications) and Professional and Technical Services sector (advertising agencies, third-party advertising vendors). It also has implications for Public Administration through its regulation of political campaign communications.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute (H.R. 3044) introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. It contains mandatory requirements with enforcement mechanisms through the Federal Election Commission.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The bill was introduced by Representative Clarke of New York in the House of Representatives and referred to the Committee on House Administration. Congress is explicitly identified as the proposing body in the Sense of Congress section.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer, AI_User
• Summary: The document targets those who create, place, or promote political advertisements containing AI-generated images or video footage. This includes candidates, political committees, online platforms meeting size thresholds, and third-party advertising vendors who sell or buy advertisement space.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The FEC is explicitly designated as the enforcement body responsible for promulgating regulations, assessing compliance, and enforcing the requirements of this Act.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The FEC is required to monitor compliance and submit biannual reports to Congress assessing compliance with and enforcement of the requirements. Congress receives these reports and oversees the FEC's implementation.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Build and Use Model
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document does not focus on specific AI development lifecycle stages. Instead, it regulates the deployment and use of AI-generated content (images and video footage) in political advertisements, requiring disclaimers when such content is used. The primary focus is on the operational use of AI outputs in a specific context (political advertising).

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions 'artificial intelligence (generative AI)' and focuses specifically on generative AI capabilities for creating images and video footage. It does not mention AI models, AI systems, frontier AI, general purpose AI, task-specific AI, foundation models, predictive AI, open-weight models, or compute thresholds.