FTC Proposes Rule Changes to Effectively Combat Deepfakes
Spurred by the growing threat of deepfakes, the FTC is aiming to alter an existing rule that currently bans the impersonation of businesses or government agencies to also include all consumers.
The updated rule, dependent on its final phrasing and the public responses the FTC obtains, may also consider it unlawful for a GenAI platform to offer goods or services that they recognize or have reason to believe is being used to harm consumers through impersonation.
“Deceivers are utilizing AI tools to impersonate individuals with scary accuracy and at a significantly larger scale,” FTC chair Lina Khan stated in a news release. “As voice cloning and other AI-driven scams are on the rise, it’s ever more crucial to shield Americans from impersonator fraud. Our planned extensions to the final impersonation rule aim to do just that, bolstering the FTC’s arsenal to tackle AI-enabled scams impersonating individuals.”
Fraudsters are utilizing voice cloning and other AI tools to impersonate individuals with scary accuracy and on a large scale. @FTC is proposing to extend its impersonation rule to cover individual impersonation, meaning these fraudsters could face substantial penalties.https://t.co/8ON0G63ZjL
— Lina Khan (@linakhanFTC) February 15, 2024
It’s not just folks like Taylor Swift who have to worry about deepfakes. Online romance scams involving deepfakes are on the rise. And scammers are impersonating employees to extract cash from corporations.
In a recent poll from YouGov, 85% of Americans said that they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about the spread of misleading video and audio deepfakes. A separate survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly 60% of adults think AI tools will increase the spread of false and misleading information during the 2024 U.S. election cycle.
Last week, my colleague Devin Coldewey covered the FCC’s move to make AI-voiced robocalls illegal by reinterpreting an existing rule that prohibits artificial and pre-recorded message spam. Timely in light of a phone campaign that employed a deepfaked President Biden to deter New Hampshire citizens from voting, the rule change — and the FTC’s step today — are the current extent of the federal government’s fight against deepfakes and deepfaking technology.
No federal law clearly prohibits deepfakes. Notable victims, such as celebrities, can potentially use existing laws like copyright law, rights to likeness, and torts such as invasion of privacy or intentional infliction of emotional distress. However, these sporadic laws can be time-consuming and strenuous to prosecute.
With Congress failing to act, ten states across the nation have adopted laws that make deepfakes illegal, primarily non-consensual pornography. Without a doubt, these laws will be updated to include a broader range of deepfakes as the tools generating deepfakes become more sophisticated. For instance, the law in Minnesota already targets the use of deepfakes in political campaigns.
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