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Law / United States / New Jersey

Deceptive Audio or Visual Media (Deepfake) Criminalization Act

N.J. Stat. §§ 2C:21-17.7 to 2C:21-17.8 (P.L. 2025, c. 40, A3540)

In force since .

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

Obligation class
Prohibition
Audit expectation
none
Setting the rule reaches
General

What it requires

  • Do not generate, solicit, disclose, or use a deceptive audio or visual media work (a deepfake) for the purpose of attempting or furthering an enumerated New Jersey crime, including a sexual offense, endangering the welfare of children, harassment, cyber-harassment, or threats or improper influence in official or political matters, or with knowledge that it will be so used by another.
  • Do not knowingly or recklessly disclose a deceptive audio or visual media work created in violation of this Act, even absent a further unlawful purpose.
  • Content a reasonable viewer would understand as criticism, comment, satire, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research falls outside this Act, as does a work an audience would not believe to be authentic.

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.

In the frameworks

NIST AI RMF
  • MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
NIST AI 600-1
MIT mitigations Draft
  • 1.5Safety Decision Frameworks
  • 3.3Access Management
FINOS AIGF
ETSI EN 304 223
  • 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
  • 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.

Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law

Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

Generating, soliciting, disclosing, or using a deepfake to further an enumerated crime (or knowing another will) is a crime of the third degree, punishable under N.J. Stat. 2C:43-6a(3) by three to five years' imprisonment; knowingly or recklessly disclosing a deepfake created in violation of the Act, without more, is a crime of the fourth degree, punishable under 2C:43-6a(4) by up to 18 months. Either may also draw a fine of up to $30,000.

Penalty structure

A fine of up to $30,000 may be imposed for a violation of the Act's criminal provisions, in addition to any term of imprisonment; the Act does not further tier the fine by degree of the underlying crime.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
Currency
USD
Fixed cap
30,000

Statutory damages

This is a statutory minimum (liquidated damages) a court must award for each knowing or reckless violation in the civil action created by the Act, not a cap; actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees may also be awarded.

As of
Currency
USD
Per person reckless
1,000

What it makes you log

Logging duty

This Act criminalizes generating, soliciting, disclosing, or using a deceptive audio or visual media work to further an enumerated crime, and creates a companion civil action. It creates no duty to create, keep, or produce a log or record of the work or its creation.

Kind
None
As of

What this law does

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Research summary

Legal information, not legal advice. This is LexLint's own research summary of a public legal source, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. For decisions that matter, consult qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. About LexLint

A natural person commits a crime of the third degree if, without license or privilege, the person generates, creates, solicits, discloses, or uses a work of deceptive audio or visual media created substantially through technical means, commonly a deepfake, for the purpose of attempting or furthering the commission of an enumerated crime or offense, including sexual offenses, endangering the welfare of children under N.J.S. 2C:24-4, harassment, cyber-harassment, threats or improper influence in official and political matters, false public alarms, and hazing, or with knowledge that the work will be used by another for that purpose; knowingly or recklessly disclosing such a work, without more, is a crime of the fourth degree.

A fine of up to $30,000 may be imposed for a violation in addition to any prison term, and a victim may bring a civil action for actual or liquidated damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees, without a criminal conviction as a prerequisite.

The Act exempts content a reasonable viewer would understand as criticism, comment, satire, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research, and exempts interactive computer service providers, cloud services providers, and AI developers or providers protected under 47 U.S.C. section 230.

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app generates audio with AI, generates images with AI or generates video with AI.

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