Texas Deepfake Laws: AI Images, Voice Cloning & Penalties (2026)

Texas is among the most aggressive states on deepfake regulation. Penal Code section 21.165, strengthened by SB 441 in 2025, criminalizes AI-generated intimate images and adds civil liability for victims. The state's 2019 election-deepfake law was the first in the nation, and separate statutes protect voiceprints as biometric data and deceased individuals' voice and likeness for 50 years after death.

Is It Illegal to Make a Deepfake of Someone in Texas?

Yes, in several distinct circumstances. Texas law addresses deepfakes across three buckets: sexual or intimate depictions, election interference, and commercial exploitation of voice or likeness. What is not covered by state law includes purely satirical or fictional deepfakes of public figures outside the sexual or election contexts, deepfakes used in news commentary or criticism, and general entertainment uses of AI imagery that do not involve intimate content or deceased persons.

Texas was an early mover on all three buckets. The 2019 election-deepfake law predated comparable statutes in most states by years. The 2023 intimate-deepfake law, then expanded in 2025, reflects the legislature's continued attention to AI-generated harm. That pattern makes Texas one of only a handful of states with comprehensive coverage across all three categories.

The laws operate independently. A single deepfake could simultaneously trigger the Penal Code intimate-image offense, expose the creator to civil liability under the Chapter 98B framework that SB 441 expanded, and implicate the biometric-data statute if a voiceprint was captured without consent. Victims and prosecutors are not limited to a single theory.

Sexual and Intimate Deepfakes

Texas Penal Code section 21.165 is the core intimate-deepfake statute. It was created by SB 1361, effective September 1, 2023, and substantially amended by SB 441, effective September 1, 2025. The offense covers AI-generated or AI-altered visual material (photo, video, or digital image) that depicts a real person in a sexually explicit manner, produced or distributed without that person's effective consent.

SB 441 expanded the covered material from "deep fake video" to the broader "deep fake media" in the Penal Code, while the parallel civil statute uses the term "artificial intimate visual material," ensuring that still images and AI-generated photos are covered alongside video. The 2025 law also added a separate threat offense: intentionally threatening to create or distribute a deepfake to coerce, extort, harass, or intimidate another person is a Class B misdemeanor, rising to Class A with a prior conviction or a victim under 18.

The criminal penalties for the core production/distribution offense are:

• Class A misdemeanor: up to 1 year in county jail, fine up to $4,000
• Third-degree felony (2-10 years in state prison): applies if the defendant has a prior conviction under section 21.165, or if the victim is under 18

For AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Texas Penal Code section 43.26, as amended by HB 2700 (2023) and SB 1621 (2025), expressly covers AI-generated material depicting minors in sexual conduct. A separate offense created by SB 20 (2025), Penal Code section 43.235, reaches obscene visual material that merely appears to depict a child, including purely AI-generated imagery, as a state jail felony with enhancements. Those offenses are felonies independent of section 21.165.

On the civil side, SB 441 expanded Chapter 98B of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the intimate-image civil liability chapter first enacted in 2015, to cover artificial intimate visual material. A victim may sue the person who produced, solicited, or disclosed the artificial intimate visual material. Website and platform operators face liability if they recklessly facilitate production or fail to remove content within 72 hours of a removal request. Payment processors that facilitate transactions tied to non-consensual intimate material are also exposed. The statute of limitations is 10 years from the later of the date the victim discovers the material or the victim's 18th birthday. A prevailing victim recovers actual damages (including mental anguish), court costs, attorney's fees, and potentially exemplary damages. Victims may use pseudonyms in litigation to protect their identity.

The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (Public Law 119-12, signed May 19, 2025) supplements Texas law by creating a federal crime for publishing non-consensual intimate deepfakes and requiring platforms to remove flagged content within 48 hours. Texas victims have both state and federal avenues.

Election and Political Deepfakes

Texas Election Code section 255.004 became effective in 2019 as the first state law in the country targeting deepfake videos in elections. The statute makes it a Class A misdemeanor to create and knowingly distribute a deepfake video within 30 days before an election, with the intent to injure a candidate or influence an election result.

The law has a constitutional history that matters. In Ex parte Stafford, 667 S.W.3d 517 (Tex. App. 2023), a Texas appellate court held that subsection (b) of section 255.004, which addressed false attribution of campaign communications, was unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment because it swept in protected speech including anonymous commentary and satire. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed on September 4, 2024, holding subsection (b) facially unconstitutional as a content-based restriction on protected speech that fails strict scrutiny.

The deepfake-specific criminal provision in subsection (d) was not the subsection struck down and remains valid. Prosecutors and private parties should be aware, however, that election-deepfake laws nationally carry ongoing First Amendment risk. The California AB 2839 election-deepfake law was struck down and permanently enjoined on First Amendment grounds in August 2025, underscoring that courts continue to scrutinize these statutes closely.

The 30-day window is a meaningful limitation: a politically damaging AI-generated video released more than 30 days before an election falls outside the statute's reach under existing law. There is no Texas equivalent to broader disclosure-only mandates that some states have enacted for AI in political advertising outside the 30-day window.

AI Voice Cloning and Digital Likeness

Texas does not have a living-persons voice-cloning law equivalent to Tennessee's ELVIS Act (Tenn. Code Ann. 47-25-1101 et seq., eff. July 1, 2024), which is the national archetype extending right-of-publicity protection to AI simulations of a living person's voice. The NO FAKES Act, which would create a federal equivalent, remains a proposed bill only and has not passed either chamber of Congress as of June 2026.

For living persons, the primary protection for voice comes from Business and Commerce Code section 503.001, the Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act. A voiceprint is a "biometric identifier" under Texas law. Any person who captures a voiceprint for a commercial purpose must first inform the individual and obtain consent. Biometric data must be stored securely and destroyed within a reasonable time, no later than one year after the purpose for collection expires. The Texas Attorney General has exclusive enforcement authority and may recover civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation.

The biometric statute's reach into AI voice cloning is narrower than it may first appear. Section 503.001(e)(2) exempts training, processing, or storing biometric identifiers to develop or train an AI model or system from the consent requirement, unless the system is used or deployed to uniquely identify a specific individual -- voice cloning, which generates new synthetic speech rather than identifying someone, plausibly falls within that exemption. Under subsection (f), though, if a voiceprint captured for AI training is later used for a commercial purpose outside the (e) exemptions, such as selling synthetic speech generated from it, the statute's storage and destruction requirements and penalties apply to that use. It does not create a standalone right to prevent non-commercial AI voice replication.

For deceased individuals, Texas Property Code chapter 26 provides a stronger and more explicit right. The chapter protects a deceased person's name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness as transferable property for 50 years after death. Commercial use without written consent of the rights holder is prohibited. Authorized remedies include actual damages, disgorgement of the defendant's profits from unauthorized use, exemplary damages, and attorney's fees. The Texas Secretary of State maintains a registry for recording property rights under chapter 26.

HB 149 (2025), the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act, was signed on June 22, 2025 and took effect January 1, 2026. It bans certain harmful AI uses, including systems developed or distributed to produce deepfake pornography, but it is not a voice-cloning or right-of-publicity statute. For the general AI regulatory framework in Texas, see Texas AI Laws, which covers broader AI governance beyond the deepfake-specific statutes addressed here.

Federal Law That Applies in Texas

Several federal statutes apply to Texas residents and incidents regardless of state law coverage.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act (Public Law 119-12) was signed on May 19, 2025, and is the first federal law specifically targeting non-consensual intimate deepfakes. It is a federal crime to knowingly publish non-consensual intimate visual depictions of adults or minors, expressly including AI-generated "digital forgeries." The maximum penalty is 2 years in federal prison (3 years if the victim is a minor). Platforms must remove flagged content within 48 hours of notice from the victim; the FTC enforces the removal obligation. This law applies in Texas alongside state law.

The DEFIANCE Act (S.1837, 119th Congress) would create a federal civil cause of action for sexual deepfake victims with liquidated damages of $150,000 ($250,000 if the conduct involved actual or attempted sexual assault, stalking, or harassment). It is not yet law. The Senate passed S.1837 by unanimous consent on January 13, 2026, and the bill is now pending in the House. An earlier version passed the Senate in July 2024 but died in the House in the 118th Congress. Do not rely on the DEFIANCE Act as current law unless the House passes it and the President signs it.

Similarly, the NO FAKES Act (S.4591, 119th Congress) would establish a federal right of publicity against unauthorized AI digital replicas of voice or likeness. It has not passed either chamber and is a proposal only.

The FTC Impersonation Rule (16 CFR Part 461, eff. April 1, 2024) prohibits deceptive impersonation of government entities and businesses, including through AI voice cloning. The individual-impersonation extension remains an unfinalized proposed rule. The FCC ruled in February 2024 (FCC 24-17) that AI-generated voices in robocalls are "artificial" voices under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, making AI voice-clone robocalls without prior express consent illegal nationwide.

Federal law under 18 U.S.C. 2256(8)(B) covers computer-generated or AI-generated images that are indistinguishable from a real minor in sexual conduct. No state exemption applies to this federal CSAM provision.

What Victims Can Do

Victims of intimate deepfakes in Texas have several parallel tracks available.

For criminal enforcement, victims can report to local law enforcement or the county district attorney. The offense under Penal Code section 21.165 is prosecutable as a Class A misdemeanor or felony. Law enforcement can also coordinate with federal authorities if the conduct meets the threshold for prosecution under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.

For civil remedies, SB 441's Chapter 98B provides the most direct path. Victims can sue the creator, distributor, or any platform that failed to remove content after a 72-hour notice. The 10-year statute of limitations is unusually long, giving victims time to pursue claims even when identifying the responsible party takes time. Damages for mental anguish are recoverable even without proof of separate financial harm, along with court costs, attorney's fees, and exemplary damages. Pseudonym filings protect victim identity throughout litigation.

For platform removal, the TAKE IT DOWN Act requires covered platforms to remove non-consensual intimate deepfakes within 48 hours of a victim's notice. This federal removal obligation runs parallel to Texas's 72-hour state-law window. Victims should submit takedown requests to each platform directly and document the request date in writing.

For biometric-data violations, the Texas Attorney General's office accepts consumer complaints at texasattorneygeneral.gov. The AG can seek injunctive relief and civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation.

Deceased-persons' estates or rights holders who discover unauthorized commercial use of a deceased individual's voice or likeness under Property Code chapter 26 can pursue civil litigation seeking actual damages, profits, exemplary damages, and attorney's fees.

Penalties at a Glance

Disclaimer: This page provides general legal information about Texas deepfake laws and is not legal advice. These laws are evolving rapidly; the 2025 SB 441 amendments, the Ex parte Stafford ruling invalidating part of Election Code 255.004, and pending federal legislation make this one of the most actively changing areas of Texas law. Consult a licensed Texas attorney for advice about your specific situation.

Sources

Texas statutes cited on this page are drawn from the official Texas statutes site and other verified primary sources, listed below.

Deepfake and AI Voice Cloning Laws by State covers how Texas's statutes compare nationally across all three buckets.

For Texas's broader AI regulatory framework, including disclosure requirements and AI-generated content rules beyond deepfakes, see Texas AI Laws.

Texas is a one-party-consent state for recording conversations. For how consent rules intersect with AI tools used in recording, see Texas Recording Laws.

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