Coffee with State Representative Cindy Ryu
State Representative Cindy Ryu discusses the 2025 legislative session, including her "Deepfake" bill, hate crime legislation, and the Right to Repair bill.
State Representative Cindy Ryu sat down for a conversation about the 2025 legislative session at SKOG Haus Coffee in Mountlake Terrace.
Since 2010, Ryu has represented the 32nd district, which encompasses parts of Seattle, Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, and Woodway.
The Forged Digital Likenesses bill (SHB 1205) makes it a crime to knowingly distribute content also known as AI-generated “deepfakes.” The law does not apply to artistic, educational, or satirical content and passed with bipartisan support despite opposition from tech industry lobbyists.
Ryu sponsored legislation strengthening the state’s hate crime law (EHB 1052), broadening the definition of a hate crime to include offenses committed "in whole or in part" due to perceptions of someone’s race, gender, religion, disability, or other characteristics. Previously, juries often interpreted the hate crime law as requiring bias to be the only motive for a crime.
Ryu was a cosponsor on the state’s new Right to Repair law (HB 1483), allowing consumers to fix the devices they own. As the Chair of the Technology, Economic Development, and Veterans Committee, Ryu championed the bill, which allows consumers and repairers to access the parts, tools, and information they need to fix electronic devices.
Here is a shortened version of the complete interview transcript, edited for length and clarity.
Oliver J Moffat: What were your top wins for the session?
Representative Cindy Ryu: Yeah… it was a challenging session.
But definitely the bill on hate crimes. Because the prosecutors were having a hard time prosecuting them and convicting them because of the way our law was written. And the bill itself is like five different words. That's it. Five new words: “in whole or in part.”
Because the jurors thought it had to be the only motive and the only reason why a crime was committed.… Hate crimes can happen in many different ways… It could be preplanned, or it could just happen along the way of committing a crime… So with that tweak… it's going to make a huge difference.
OJM: Can you give some examples of how juries were getting confused?
RCR: One was a same-sex couple. Their unit was trashed by a neighbor… and vandalized, and it had very misogynistic… graffiti in the unit. And yet, they could not prosecute and convict the perpetrator because it was about other disputes that they had ongoing. It was an obviously, documentable hate crime.
But because the jury's instructions were [that the hate crime] had to be the only motivation… they could not prosecute or convict on that front. Only the property damage and whatever other disputes they had.
Another one, I believe it was a Korean man, and he was, I don't remember what the exact crime was, but he was obviously called names. And, you know, the typical, which I've been also told, “go back to your country”, you know, that type of hate crime.
And so, especially having gone through the pandemic with, you-know-who calling it the “kung flu” and so on. It's been… normalized to be hateful. And so before this law, they would only be prosecuted and convicted of everything else. But not the hate crime itself.
OJM: I'm also curious about the deep fake bill.
RCR: Yeah… Basically, I had heard a story about a… Maryland High School Principal, where over the weekend, basically a disgruntled ex-employee who was … fired by him. She created and posted… a meme of him saying really racist stuff…
And by the time… he got a hold of it, millions of people had actually viewed it, and so it ruined his reputation, even though it was found to be fake. And there was nothing they could do because it wasn't a crime..
And so … we need to do something about … that. And I thought, yeah, we should. And … a staff member found … we already have something like that… for law enforcement and I think … one other category. So why should they be the only ones privileged to have access to this?
OJM: Does the bill specifically call out AI?
RCR: Any fake… they use AI to do it more frequently now…
We wanted to make sure it's not the [millions of people viewing the fake], but the first person that created it and posted it knowingly that it was a fake. That would become a crime.
OJM: Any other bills you want to talk about?
RCR: How about the one that I didn't sponsor, but that I helped work on for the last six years? Right to Repair. This is the Mia Gregerson Bill… The bill number is: The right to repair digital electronics. House Bill 1483…
Basically, because devices are so expensive… Well, digital devices, especially Apple products, are designed to fail…
And so the right to repair is a movement that is: “you bought it, you own it”. Why should I have to go to either just the Apple repair or turn it in? Basically designed obsolescence, right?
Initially, Representative Gregerson comes up with really good ideas and she does also just like me go to national conferences. And she heard about this and she absolutely agreed with them, that everyone who has bought a device should have the right to repair it… whether themselves or others are fixing it…
And so basically it reduces costs, obviously, for the consumer, because then they can refurbish it themselves, repair it, and so on. But it also reduces e-waste, right? Because we are throwing away so many. And they have the options to repair them.
And so … Apple was opposing it… The Androids are not as much a problem, because they can be substituted, you know, even if you were to buy their own parts, independent contractors, repairers could repair them.
Apple was very unique in that you had to have their people do it… And so it was basically a captive audience to be an Apple product owner. And so we loosened that up quite a bit. And so hopefully even Apple devices can now be repaired.