Law / United States / 
Montana
Privacy in communications, digitally fabricated intimate images
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not publish, distribute, or disclose a real or digitally fabricated intimate image or video of an identifiable person without consent, when done to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or injure the person or to obtain money or other valuable consideration
- Do not possess and threaten to disclose such an image or video to obtain money or other valuable consideration
- A first offense is a misdemeanor; a second or subsequent offense is a felony
- This section does not impose liability on an interactive computer service for content provided by another person
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
A first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both. A second or subsequent offense is a felony punishable by imprisonment up to 5 years or a fine up to $25,000, or both.
Penalty structure
First offense under subsection (1)(d) or (1)(e): misdemeanor, fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both. Second or subsequent offense: felony, imprisonment up to 5 years or a fine up to $25,000, or both.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- 6 September 2026
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 25,000
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Section 45-8-213 defines a digitally fabricated image and states the elements of the offense of publishing, distributing, disclosing, or threatening to disclose one without consent. It imposes no duty on anyone to log, record, or otherwise document anything.
- Kind
- None
- As of
- 21 September 2026
Who checks it
Audit expectation
none
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
A 2025 amendment (HB 514) added digitally fabricated images to the privacy in communications statute's existing ban on nonconsensual intimate images: a person may not publish, distribute, or disclose a real or digitally fabricated image or video of an identifiable person showing genitals or an exposed female breast, or the person depicted engaged in a real or simulated sexual act, without that person's consent, with the purpose to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or injure the person or to obtain money or other valuable consideration; nor may a person possess and threaten to disclose such an image or video with the purpose to obtain money or other valuable consideration from the person depicted.
'Digitally fabricated' means using a technical means, such as artificial intelligence, to create media that realistically misrepresents an identifiable individual as engaging in conduct in which the individual did not engage. A first offense under these provisions is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500 or up to 6 months in county jail, or both; a second or subsequent offense is a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment or a fine up to $25,000, or both. The section does not impose liability on an interactive computer service for content another person provided.
When LexLint raises it
generates_content
Read the law
official Montana Code Annotated, live codified text, leg.mt.gov
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.