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Michael Gianaris

Sponsor · Democratic/Working Families

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Senate bill · S8420 (2025-26)

Relates to requiring advertisements to disclose the use of a synthetic performer

Latest action Dec 11, 2025

Summary

Requires advertisements to disclose the use of a synthetic performer; imposes a $1,000 civil penalty for a first violation and a $5,000 penalty for any subsequent violation.

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Where it stands

Signed into law.

  1. Introduced
  2. In committee
  3. Up for a vote
  4. Passed one chamber
  5. Passed
  6. Enacted

New York State Senate

Same as A8887, the matching bill in the Assembly.

Amends the General Business Law.

Committee

Rules · New York State Assembly

Also referred to Rules · New York State Senate, Ways and Means · New York State Assembly.

Purpose, from the sponsor's memo

This bill would require disclaimers when commercial content contains a synthetic performer.

Filed with the bill. Read it on nysenate.gov (opens in a new tab)

Recorded votes

  • Vote: Floor vote

    NY SenateJun 13, 2025Result: passed

    (59) (0) (0) (4)

  • Vote: Committee vote · Rules

    Senate RulesJun 12, 2025Result: passed

    (20) (0) (0) (1)

Cosponsors

Angelo Santabarbara, Dana Levenberg and 2 more on Agora

  • Democratic4
See the full list on nysenate.gov (opens in a new tab)

The sponsor's argument

Why Michael Gianaris says this is needed

Synthetic performers are digitally-created media that appear as a real person. Synthetic performers are used by advertisers to sell products, by individuals to prank others, or by those who wish to distort reality. With easy access to technology, there has been an increase in the use of synthetic performers across all forms of media, including on social media and in digital advertising. Without notice that the content one is viewing is not real, synthetic performers and manipulated media contrib- ute to a false news narrative and undermine one's ability to accurately distill fact from fiction. This legislation will require synthetic performers used for a commercial purpose to be clearly labeled as such so that the average user will be able to easily discern, at the point of viewing, that the image they are looking at is not real, but a synthetic performer. Failure to properly label a synthetic performer will result in civil penalties up to $5,000.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.

Full history

  1. Dec 11, 2025

    Signed

    SIGNED CHAP.617

    NY Senate

  2. Dec 1, 2025

    Sent to the executive

    DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR

    NY Senate

  3. Jun 17, 2025

    Passed a chamber

    PASSED ASSEMBLY

    NY Assembly

  4. Jun 17, 2025

    Returned to Senate

    RETURNED TO SENATE

    NY Assembly

  5. Jun 13, 2025

    Sent to the executive

    DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY

    NY Senate

Show full history (12 earlier events)
  1. Jun 13, 2025

    Ordered to Third Reading Rules CAL.701

    ORDERED TO THIRD READING RULES CAL.701

    NY Assembly

  2. Jun 13, 2025

    Passed a chamber

    PASSED SENATE

    NY Senate

  3. Jun 13, 2025

    Referred to committee

    REFERRED TO WAYS AND MEANS

    NY Assembly

  4. Jun 13, 2025

    Substituted

    SUBSTITUTED BY S8420A

    NY Assembly

  5. Jun 12, 2025

    Ordered to Third Reading CAL.2028

    ORDERED TO THIRD READING CAL.2028

    NY Senate

  6. Jun 12, 2025

    Reported out of committee

    REPORTED REFERRED TO RULES

    NY Assembly

  7. Jun 12, 2025

    Rules Report CAL.701

    RULES REPORT CAL.701

    NY Assembly

  8. Jun 11, 2025

    Amend and Recommit to Ways and Means

    AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO WAYS AND MEANS

    NY Assembly

  9. Jun 10, 2025

    Amend and Recommit to Rules

    AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO RULES

    NY Senate

  10. Jun 10, 2025

    Amend and Recommit to Ways and Means

    AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO WAYS AND MEANS

    NY Assembly

  11. Jun 9, 2025

    Referred to committee

    REFERRED TO RULES

    NY Senate

  12. Jun 9, 2025

    Referred to committee

    REFERRED TO WAYS AND MEANS

    NY Assembly

About this record

Summary

The summary comes from NY Open Legislation, the New York State Senate's public record. For more, see How we handle summaries.

Cosponsors

The list shows the cosponsors who are on Agora, A to Z. The official record may list more.

Party colors

Parties are shown in the same neutral colors.

Source

From NY Open Legislation, the NY Senate and Assembly, and official rosters. This record was last updated Oct 22, 2026. About our data

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