Chile advances deepfake bill, reviews data law

Chile’s Chamber of Deputies approved in general a bill on AI-generated content and deepfakes, sending it back to the Committee on Future, Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation for further review. At the same time, the government is weighing a delay to the Personal Data Protection Law, while the agency responsible for enforcing it remains inactive.

What does the deepfake bill establish?

The text calls for fines of between 5,000 and 10,000 UTM, and would require platforms to label AI-generated content, remove reported material within 72 hours, and maintain a legal representative in Chile, according to The Standard CIO.

The local report that first covered the general approval said the proposal is aimed at bringing order to the circulation of synthetic content and setting concrete obligations for platforms operating in the country. The bill also returns to the Committee on Future, Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation to continue its legislative debate.

Why is the data protection law being delayed?

The government is considering postponing the law’s start date because the Data Protection Agency is still not operational, and several reports have said the executive branch is discussing an extension with lawmakers. Radio Universidad de Chile, El Mostrador, and Biobío Chile reported on that discussion, with different references to how long the delay could be.

Biobío Chile said the law should take effect in December, but implementation could be pushed back by a year. El Mostrador reported that talks with lawmakers even reached the possibility of moving the date to December 1, 2027, linking that option to the Senate’s rejection of the shortlist of board members the government proposed to launch the agency.

What is the current effective date?

The current legal start date remains December 1, 2026, and any postponement would require a short bill that does not yet exist and has not been approved, according to a legal analysis by R&V Soluciones Legales.

That clarification comes amid political noise over a possible extension. MSN Chile also reported that in talks between the executive branch and lawmakers, an alternative under discussion is a limited delay of up to six months, conditioned on getting the Data Protection Agency up and running no later than December 1, 2026.

How did the private sector react, and what other digital fronts are moving?

From the private sector, Publimetro Chile said any postponement "changes the calendar, but not the challenge," because companies would still need to rethink how they handle personal data. La Tercera, meanwhile, published a letter to the editor that called the possible delay "an unacceptable setback" and warned of negative signals for investors and the public.

The debate is unfolding alongside another regulatory track. CNN Chile reported that Science Minister Aisén Etcheverry Wulf linked the National Plan for Safe Digital Environments to the government’s concern over cases such as Meta’s U.S. court settlement over social media addiction, and said the executive branch wants platforms to offer "safe products" for children and adolescents. That bill is in its first legislative stage in the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Future, Science and Technology.

In parallel, CeCo at Universidad Diego Portales reported that Chile is moving forward with a general artificial intelligence bill, approved by the Chamber of Deputies in October 2025 and now in the Senate, inspired by the risk-based approach of the European AI Act. That third pillar joins the data protection law and the initiatives on deepfakes and digital integrity.