Montana HB 514 (sextortion deepfakes in privacy crime)
Montana Privacy in Communications Amendment (HB 514)
Montana · Mont. HB 514 (2025) (Ch. 686); MCA 45-8-213
- Status
- In effect
- Took effect
- October 1, 2025
- Applies to
- Any person; interactive computer services are not liable for content provided by another person.
- Enforced by
- Montana county/state criminal prosecutors (criminal offense).
Montana expanded its existing 'privacy in communications' crime to cover real or AI-fabricated sexual images. It is now an offense to publish or distribute such images of an identifiable person without consent to harass or harm them or to obtain money, and separately to possess such images and threaten to release them to extort money or other valuables.
Who is protected: Identifiable individuals depicted in real or digitally fabricated sexual imagery.
Legal detail
HB 514 (2025) amends MCA 45-8-213 to add subsections criminalizing nonconsensual disclosure and extortionate possession/threat-to-disclose of real or 'digitally fabricated' sexual imagery of an identifiable person, and adds a definition of 'digitally fabricated.'
Key facts
| Jurisdiction | Montana |
|---|---|
| Level | State |
| Strength | Limited |
| Enacted | May 13, 2025 |
| Citation | Mont. HB 514 (2025) (Ch. 686); MCA 45-8-213 |
| Private right of action | No, agency enforcement only |
| Penalties | A first offense under the new image provisions is a misdemeanor (up to $500 and/or 6 months). A second or subsequent conviction is a felony, up to 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine up to $25,000. |
| Topics | non-consensual intimate imagery · AI-generated images · deepfakes |
| Bill text | Montana HB 514 (2025) Enrolled Bill — Privacy in Communications |
More AI rules in Montana
- Montana MCDPA · In effect
- Montana SB 25 election deepfakes — preliminarily enjoined as to plaintiff (2026) · In effect
- MT Right to Compute Act · In effect
- Montana SB 413 (crime to share explicit deepfakes) · In effect
- Montana HB 178 (limits on government AI use) · In effect
- Montana HB 513 (property right in voice & likeness vs. deepfakes) · In effect
Related non-consensual intimate imagery rules elsewhere
- Arizona HB 2133 deepfake sexual content — vetoed 2026 · Vetoed
- Illinois HB 3851 — deepfake cyberbullying in schools (2026) · In effect
- TAKE IT DOWN Act · In effect
- DEFIANCE Act (deepfake-porn civil suits) · Proposed / pending
- NY S5959-D (2020, digital replicas + deepfake porn) · In effect
- Missouri Deepfake & Digital Media Protection Act · Proposed / pending
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