By Ray Fernandez

19 U.S. states have enacted laws regulating the use of generative AI in election communications, and seven more are considering bills.

With no federal mandate, more than half of American states have enacted or are exploring laws designed to criminalize the creation and distribution of deepfakes in election-related content.

[….]

Deepfake laws are already being challenged: some of the individuals charged for allegedly breaching them say their message was a “parody” or cite freedom of speech as their defense.

Others go as far as to say they created the deepfakes “to raise awareness“.

So, are deepfakes a problem for the tech industry or the government to solve?

Jacob Mchangama, Founder and Executive Director at The Future of Free Speech, a think tank advocating freedom of speech globally, said the U.S. deepfake state laws attempt to address the “what” without considering the “how.”

“The First Amendment protects even (most) false political speech. It might make a good sound bite to say you are going to stop disinformation and deepfakes in elections, but crafting a law that doesn’t violate a person’s free speech rights is extremely difficult without censoring lawful speech in the process.”

Mchangama added that it’s difficult to envision unbiased regulations when politicians are the ones crafting the rules.

“These laws can easily become tools to protect those in power while suppressing legitimate criticism and dissent. We should be cautious about giving politicians the power to define truth and falsehoods.”

“The First Amendment protects satire and parody as political speech, which are essential tools to criticize the government. In more repressive regimes than the U.S., they are often the only way to challenge public officials and voice dissent,” Mchangama said.

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Jacob Mchangama is the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech. He is also a research professor at Vanderbilt University and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).