The proposed law would only apply to the 60
days before an election. A candidate depicted in
a “deep fake” could take a person spreading the
offending material to court.
Assembly Bill 730, he told a Senate committee
on Tuesday, is not meant to stop anyone from
saying anything they want.
But, he added: “Somebody doesn’t have the
right to put their words in my mouth.”
Berman pointed to recent high-profile
examples of manipulated videos giving rise
to disinformation.
A video of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a
Democrat from California, was slowed down
to depict her as slurring her words and spread
widely on social media in May along with posts
suggesting she appeared drunk or sluggish.
The footage was taken from a real event but
reporters covering her appearance said she
appeared coherent throughout.
In June, lawmakers and experts at a
Congressional hearing described the
emergence of technologies that use facial
mapping and artificial intelligence to create
fake videos amounts to a national security
threat. The chairman of the committee said it
can allow “malicious actors to foment chaos,
division or crisis.”
In the wake of a 2016 presidential that saw
concerted, social media savvy efforts to
spread misinformation about candidates,
Berman warned lawmakers that they must
act quickly to stop emerging technologies
that could be particularly effective tools for
dirty campaigning.
Image: Douglas Christian