SG govt proposes new bill to tackle deepfakes during elections

The ministry of digital development and information (MDDI) is proposing a new bill to ban digitally manipulated content, including deepfakes, during elections. 

The Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill seeks to introduce new measures to protect Singaporeans from deepfakes. It will apply to all online content that depicts a candidate saying or doing something that they did not. This includes content created by non-AI techniques too such as editing via Photoshop, dubbing and splicing. 

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If the bill is passed, the returning officer (RO) can issue corrective directions to individuals who publish such content.

The RO can also issue corrective directions to social media services and internet access service providers to take down the content or disable access by Singapore users to such content during the election period. Failure to comply with a corrective direction is punishable by a fine, imprisonment or both. 

In addition, the bill will allow candidates to make a request to the RO to review content that have misrepresented them. A false or misleading declaration by a candidate can result to a fine or the vacation of an election. This bill comes as malicious actors have taken advantage of the speed and ease of AI technology to create and distribute misinformation and conduct online criminal activities.

"In Singapore, we have observed a worrying trend of malicious deepfakes, including those used for scams and extortion. Deepfakes are a particularly concerning form of misinformation because they can realistically depict the appearance, voice, or action of an individual in a manner which can deceive or mislead the public," said MDDI in a statement. 

"While the government can already deal with individual pieces of online falsehoods against the public interest through the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), targeted levers are needed under our Online Election Advertising (OEA) regime to act on deepfakes that misrepresent candidates during elections," it added. 

Such content, if left unaddressed, can threaten the integrity of the electoral process, said MDDI adding that voters must be able to make informed choices based on facts and not misinformation.  Beyond the elections, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will introduce a new code of practice requiring specified social media services to put in place measures to prevent and counter the abuse of digitally manipulated content on their services. 

The IMDA will engage social media services in the coming months to work out the details of the code. 

Earlier in May this year, AI Verify Foundation and IMDA partnered up to launch the "Model Governance Framework for Generative AI" (MCF-Gen AI) to address concerns over the technology, as well as facilitate innovation. The framework comprises nine dimensions to foster a trusted ecosystem. Within these nine dimensions, the framework calls for all key stakeholders including policymakers, industry, the research community and the broader public to collectively do their part.

The nine dimensions includes accountability, data, trusted development and deployment, incident reporting, testing and assurance, security, content provenance, safety and alignment R&D and AI public for good.

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