Texas Data Law

Texas Data, Privacy & AI

Synthetic Media and Digital Replicas

Texas has no single deepfake statute. Separate laws cover election deepfakes, sexual deepfakes, commercial use of a person's identity, and the rights of deceased personalities. This guide maps each one and the steps for permission, labeling, and takedown.

What the law requires

Election deepfakes. A person commits a Class A misdemeanor if, with intent to deceive and to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election, the person creates a deep fake video and causes it to be published or distributed within 30 days of an election (Election Code §255.004(c), (d)).

Sexual deepfakes, criminal. Penal Code §21.165 makes it a crime to knowingly produce or distribute by electronic means deep fake media that appears to show a person with intimate parts exposed or engaged in sexual conduct, without that person's effective consent. HB 449 (2025) extended the offense from videos to all deep fake media, including still images, for offenses on or after September 1, 2025.

Sexual deepfakes, civil. SB 441 (2025), effective September 1, 2025, lets a person depicted without consent in artificial intimate visual material sue those who produce, solicit, disclose, or promote it, and in some cases websites, apps, and payment processors that recklessly facilitate it (Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code ch. 98B). A website or app on which the material is posted must remove it within 72 hours of the depicted person's request and must offer an easy removal process; a failure is a deceptive trade practice the Attorney General may enforce. Federally, the TAKE IT DOWN Act requires covered platforms to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid request, a duty that took effect May 19, 2026.

Commercial use of identity. Texas recognizes a common-law claim for misappropriating a person's name or likeness for the value associated with it (Matthews v. Wozencraft, 15 F.3d 432 (5th Cir. 1994)). Property Code chapter 26 gives a transferable property right in the name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness of an individual who died on or after January 1, 1937; any use is permitted after the 50th anniversary of the individual's death (§26.012(d)).

Voice and face data. A voiceprint or a record of face geometry is a biometric identifier under the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act (Bus. & Com. Code §503.001(a)(2)), so capturing one to build a replica for a commercial purpose requires notice and consent.

AI tools. The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act bars developing or distributing an AI system with the sole intent of producing unlawful sexual deepfakes.

Labeling synthetic content is good practice, but a label does not cure fraud, defamation, privacy, biometric, election, or contract violations.

Related topics

Sources and legal update

Current through October 12, 2026.

This material is for general information and is not legal advice. Law and enforcement practice change. Consult counsel about specific facts.