A bill to bar the dissemination of unlabeled “deepfakes” within 90 days of an election cleared the state Senate on Tuesday, but not before lawmakers stripped it of an emergency clause that would have changed the law in time for the 2024 primary.
Deepfakes is the blanket term attached to photos, audio and video manipulated digitally to resemble or sound like a real person, and they’ve already been used to target voters in the U.S. presidential election. In last month’s primary election in New Hampshire, voters heard robocalls from a voice purporting to be President Joe Biden that urged them to “save their vote” for the general election.
Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 96, which she calls a “light touch” regulation. Twenty-seven states have or are trying to enact outright bans or create regulations around deepfakes, but Larson said South Dakota should take a careful approach that creates accountability without overreaching.
There may be a need for more serious regulation as the technology evolves, she said, but deepfakes are already convincing enough to be used against any candidate.
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“There are currently no laws on our books to prevent anyone from doing this,” Larson said.
Larson played a phony audio clip made to sound like former President Donald Trump during the bill’s committee hearing last week.
SB 96 would make it a class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, to create and release a video, photo or audio manipulated by digital means to resemble a real person “with the intent to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election” unless it is labeled as fake.
It would also empower the attorney general or targeted candidate to “seek injunctive or other equitable relief prohibiting the dissemination of the deepfake,” and allow the state Board of Elections to issue fines for breaking the law.
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Those caught creating and releasing election-related deepfakes not labeled as such more than once in five years could be fined up to $10,000 by the board, and those who do so with the intent to cause violence could be fined up to $5,000. In all other cases, the board could issue a $1,000 fine.
As debate on the bill commenced, Larson asked for and received support from her fellow senators to amend the bill with exemptions for media organizations that unknowingly publish or broadcast deepfakes in electoral ads. There are also exemptions for satire or parody.
Those clauses were an issue for Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron. Satire is subjective, he said, and he also didn’t like the idea that he could “pay a buddy $5” to post a deepfake to a blog and avoid punishment.
“As long as you pay someone to publish it, it’s OK,” Wheeler said of the amendment.
Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, listens to testimony during a state Senate Education Committee meeting on Jan. 16, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
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Sen. John Wiik, R-Big Stone City, argued that it’s too soon to regulate such a new technology.
“This is a new thing. And when we’re entering into new territory, our gut instinct is ‘we need a law,’” Wiik said.
He also objected to handing the Board of Elections the power to fine people – something it’s never had, Wiik said.
The majority of senators disagreed with Wheeler and Wiik, though. They voted to back the bill 21-11, not enough to get the two-thirds majority required to make the bill law immediately with the governor’s signature. It was enough, however, for Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden to invoke Joint Rule 513, which allows a bill that misses the two-thirds mark but gets majority support to be immediately reconsidered without an emergency clause.
After an amendment removing the clause was moved and seconded, SB 96 passed on a 22-10 vote. Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller, R-Rapid City, switched her vote after the amendment.
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Larson’s bill now moves to a House of Representatives committee. If it passes that chamber and is signed by the governor, it will take effect July 1, after the June primary election and before the November general election.
Another bill on deepfakes, SB 107, has yet to see a committee hearing. That bill, from Rapid City Republican Sen. David Johnson, is a companion bill to SB 96. It would go beyond elections to punish those who create deepfakes of any person “with the intent to defame, exploit, harass, intimidate, or sabotage the person.”
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VERMILLION, S.D. (AP) — Terri Miller Jr. scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Portland State beat South Dakota 77-71 on Wednesday.
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Keyon Kensie scored 22 points and added 10 rebounds for the Vikings (5-2). Jaylin Henderson finished with 11 points.
Isaac Bruns led the Coyotes (5-4) with 28 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Cameron Fens added 15 points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks for South Dakota. Uzziah Buntyn finished with 11 points and two steals.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
South Dakota State University is expanding its graduate offerings with the launch of a new social science Ph.D. program, an interdisciplinary program designed to address complex challenges facing rural communities and society at large.
Approved by the South Dakota Board of Regents in April 2025 and the Higher Learning Commission shortly after, the program will welcome its first cohort of students in fall 2026.
The program is housed in the School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Rather than focusing on a single discipline such as sociology or psychology, the new Ph.D. brings together faculty expertise from across SDSU’s colleges — including nursing, natural sciences, agriculture, pharmacy and allied health professions — to train scholars equipped to tackle today’s “wicked problems.”
Paul Markel
“The world’s complex issues require interdisciplinary teams,” said Paul Markel, professor and director of the School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies.
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The launch of the social science Ph.D. program also marks a new chapter for SDSU’s historic tradition in graduate social science education. The university’s sociology program dates back to 1925, once producing nearly a quarter of all doctorates on campus during its peak. Admissions to the previous sociology Ph.D. were suspended in 2020 due in part to faculty staffing and shifting academic focus.
Rather than simply reviving the former program, faculty and administrators chose to reimagine it. The resulting social science Ph.D. program addresses the current, complex research needs of the university in alignment with Pathway to Premier 2030 and the “R1 Our Way” initiative — SDSU’s commitment to reaching high research activity designation. The program not only advances interdisciplinary research but also increases the number of research doctorates SDSU produces, a key benchmark in the journey toward R1 status.
“The interdisciplinary approach allows complex problems to be taken seriously and explored in depth, so that you can come up with real practical solutions in a way that no single discipline could do alone,” Markel emphasized.
The program’s creation involved a working group of faculty representing multiple disciplines and colleges, including:
Abigail Tobias-Lauerman, School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies
George Tsakiridis, School of American and Global Studies
Heidi Mennenga, College of Nursing
James Amell, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions
Jason Zimmerman, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Department of Natural Resource Management
Kimberly Johnson Maier, Department of Geography and Geospatial Sciences
Londa Nwadike, College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
Shola Aromona, School of Communication and Journalism
Stephanie Hanson, College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions
Tyler Miller, School of Psychology, Sociology and Rural Studies
Members met regularly to design curriculum, define core requirements and develop the program’s first two proposed specializations: 1) environmental and rural development and 2) rural well-being.
“At one point we had rural sociology on our campus,” Markel said. “So even with this program, both specializations represent a rural theme, specifically rural development and rural well-being. It’s honoring and rejuvenating our rural studies roots.”
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The program’s structure allows students to ground themselves in social science theory while applying research methods to practical challenges like sustainable land management or rural health disparities. It also aims to revive SDSU’s historic partnership with SDSU Extension through renewed attention to rural vitality, echoing SDSU’s land-grant mission.
“The rural environment is very complex, and there are incredible challenges in the rural space,” Markel explained. “When we identify a problem in a rural community, whether it’s health care, access to food, education or workforce development, it’s not enough for any one discipline to focus on the problem because we really need to bring in teams and have multiple disciplines looking at the same problem to make a difference.”
From concept to approval, the Ph.D. in social science moved with rare speed in higher education. The initial proposal, written by Markel in collaboration with faculty such as School of Communication and Journalism Director Josh Westwick, School of American and Global Studies Director Christi Garst-Santos and MaryJo Benton Lee, adjunct faculty member and evaluation specialist, was submitted to Dean David Earnest of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in September 2024. By December, the curricular paperwork was complete, and the program received final Board of Regents approval by April 2025.
The program is now included in SDSU’s Graduate Catalog, with recruitment and marketing underway for the first cohort’s admission in fall 2026. An advisory council composed of faculty from across participating colleges will oversee program evolution and ensure continued interdisciplinary collaboration.
The social science Ph.D. program positions South Dakota State University as one of the few institutions in the nation — alongside models like Syracuse University and Johns Hopkins — to offer an interdisciplinary social science doctorate.
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Dennis Hedge
“I am excited about the impact that the social science Ph.D. program will have on our local communities and university,” SDSU Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dennis Hedge said. “While providing a significant boost to our university’s Carnegie R1 designation pursuit, this interdisciplinary Ph.D. program will importantly provide graduating students with a solid foundation of perspectives and methods in the social sciences that will serve as a framework for addressing complex issues faced by communities in our state and region. By doing such work, our communities will ultimately be stronger.”
Markel summarized the program’s aim this way: the doctoral training will ground students in social science theory and research methods while requiring them to work with interdisciplinary advisory committees and teams so their research and solutions are applied and relevant to an ever-changing, complex world.
“We want to be able to take the research that comes out of this program and apply it in meaningful ways to the people of South Dakota and the region who are living in rural environments,” Markel said.
