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One state lawmaker is pushing to add additional penalties for crimes involving "deep fakes"

Members of the General Assembly are debating what kind of punishment should be on the table for people who use deep fakes to commit crimes.

Using a synthetic voice to scam your way into someone’s bank account is already a crime. But does it need a new penalty for using a new technology? Senator Adam Ebbin is a Democrat from Alexandria who has a bill that would create new civil and criminal penalties for using deep fakes to commit crimes.

"When you have a video of someone saying something with their likeness, their voice that looks real, it's very believable. It's a new kind of fraud," Ebbin says.

"And then why have a new penalty? Aren't there existing penalties you could use," asks reporter Michael Pope.

"We want to discourage the use of deep fakes and of synthetic media to perpetuate fraud," replies Ebbin.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell says the code section Ebbin wants to amend is called the "Insulting Words Statute," which was adopted in the early 1800s to provide a way for people to file a lawsuit instead of challenging someone to a duel.

"I think that would be a crime anyway already," he explains. "I don't see why using a digital, fake voice to do it means it's not a crime, which I think is what the concern is. So, it's just not clear to me how necessary the entire bill is."
 
A Senate panel stripped Ebbin's bill of the penalties and created a new work group to consider the issues, although there are still opportunities for Ebbin to bring back new penalties as the bill makes its way through the General Assembly.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Michael Pope is an author and journalist who lives in Old Town Alexandria.