§ 98C.004.Liability for Online Impersonation; Exception

The cause of action, and both elements are demanding.

A person is liable to another injured by their online impersonation if:

(1) the person knowingly and with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten the injured person used the online impersonation to create a false identity; and (2) the impersonation is "to a reasonable person, virtually indistinguishable from an actual person.".

Four intents are listed, any of which suffices — harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten. But some such intent is required, so an impersonation created without one is outside the chapter however irritating.

The second element is an objective quality standard. The impersonation must be "virtually indistinguishable from an actual person" to a reasonable person. A crude fake, or one an ordinary viewer would recognise as false, does not qualify.

That element is what makes the chapter a response to generative AI. Convincing synthetic images and voices are now readily produced, and the standard is set at the point where a viewer cannot tell.

Subsection (b) is the constitutional safeguard: a person is not liable for an online impersonation of which a purpose is satire or parody.

"A purpose" rather than "the purpose" is a meaningful choice — satire need only be among the purposes, not the sole one. Political satire frequently intends to embarrass its subject as well as to comment, and the wording protects it.