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FEC Should Reverse Dangerous Decision To Not Regulate Deepfakes
Today, Axios reported that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) will not propose any new rules for the use of AI-generated deepfakes in political advertising this year. The news comes over a year after Public Citizen petitioned the agency for rulemaking on the issue.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, released the following statement in response:
“A decision by the FEC not to regulate political deepfakes would be a shameful abrogation of its responsibilities. The idea expressed by FEC Chair Sean Cooksey that the FEC should wait for deceptive fraud to occur and study its consequences before acting to prevent the fraud is preposterous.
“Political deepfakes are rushing at us, threatening to disrupt electoral integrity. They have been used widely around the world and are starting to surface in the United States. And while social media platforms have some good rules in place, Elon Musk’s recent posting of a political deepfake is a reminder that platforms cannot be trusted to self-regulate. Requiring that political deepfakes be labeled doesn’t favor any political party or candidate. It simply protects voters from fraud and chaos.
“The FEC is the nation’s election protection agency and it has authority to regulate deepfakes as part of its existing authority to prohibit fraudulent misrepresentations. It should have acted on this issue long ago, before Public Citizen petitioned for rulemaking. When we did petition, the agency should have promptly acted to put a rule in place. It still could and should reverse the wrongheaded decision that Chair Cooksey has said is imminent, and act to protect voters and our elections.
“The FEC’s refusal to do its job underscores the need for Congressional action, the importance of state action — already 20 state legislatures have acted to prevent deepfake chaos — and the need for the Federal Communications Commission to push forward with its proposal for an AI disclosure standard for political ads on TV and radio.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Trump Calls Abortion 'Much Less of an Issue' and Won't Say How He'll Vote in Florida
"Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he followed through with that promise," said the ACLU of Florida. "Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in Florida this November."
Aug 08, 2024
Republican former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday tried to downplay the significance of reproductive freedom in this year's contest and refused to say how he plans to vote on a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution that would outlaw pre-viability abortion bans.
The Republican presidential nominee gave a wide-ranging press conference from Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Palm Beach—an event featuring an "enormous number of lies and misrepresentations," as one critic put it, and which the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, described as a "public meltdown."
During the press conference, Trump said, "I think the abortion issue has been very much tempered down," adding that "it seems to be much less of an issue, especially for those where they have the exceptions."
As Common Dreams has reported, patients have been denied abortion care even when they should be covered by exceptions—generally for cases of rape, incest, or to protect the health or life of the pregnant person.
In response to Trump attempting to downplay the impact of abortion on the election, Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali said, "Ooof, this is a gift for Democrats."
Harris' campaign quickly shared on social media several videos of Trump's remarks from the press conference, including what he said about abortion.
Florida has banned abortions after six weeks—before many people even know they are pregnant—with limited exceptions. Trump was asked how he plans to vote on the ballot measure, which says that "no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider."
The ex-president refused to answer, instead saying: "Well, I'm gonna announce that. I'm gonna actually have a press conference on that at some point in the near future, so I don't want to tell you now. But Florida does have a vote coming up on that and I think probably the vote will go in a little more liberal way than people thought. But I'll be announcing that at the appropriate time."
Noting the comments, the ACLU of Florida—which supports the ballot measure—said on social media: "Reminder: In 2016, Trump promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, and he followed through with that promise. Reproductive freedom is on the ballot in Florida this November. Vote yes on 4."
Whether Trump will be allowed to vote in Florida this November—after a New York jury in May found him guilty of 34 felony charges for falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election—will depend on whether and how he is sentenced, according to legal experts.
Trump attacked reproductive rights as president and has bragged about appointing half of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who reversedRoe with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision that triggered a wave of GOP state bans. However, he has also recently tried to distance himself from some harmful restrictions, recognizing them as politically risky.
Reproductive rights advocates have warned against falling for Trump's feigned inconsistency on the issue, taking aim at language in the Republican Party's 2024 platform and arguing that his selection of U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate shows that "a Trump administration will stop at nothing to ban all abortion" at the federal level.
U.S. House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on social media Thursday: "Let's be clear. Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans will impose a nationwide abortion ban. Don't believe a word they say otherwise."
The Harris campaign highlighted Trump's response when asked whether he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to revoke access to mifepristone, which is often taken in tandem with misoprostol for medication abortions.
Seemingly suggesting that he is open to such action, Trump told reporters at the press conference, "You could do things that will—would supplement, absolutely, and those things are pretty open and humane."
In a statement about Trump's comments, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, the campaign manager for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said that "today Donald Trump made clear what his Project 2025 allies have been saying for months: If he is elected, he will use his power and every tool of the federal government to rip away access to medication abortion, effectively banning abortion nationwide in all 50 states."
"Already, women across the country are suffering because of the nightmare Donald Trump unleashed by overturning Roe v. Wade. That reality—women forced to the brink of death before receiving the care they need, doctors facing the threat of jail time for doing their jobs, and survivors of rape and incest made to flee their states for basic healthcare—will only get worse if Donald Trump wins and wipes out access to medication abortion," she warned. "The stakes this November couldn't be higher, and only one ticket is fighting to protect our freedoms: Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz."
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Trump Campaign: Where's Kamala? UAW: In Michigan With Union Autoworkers
"To me, this election is real simple," said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain. "It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?"
Aug 08, 2024
Part of former U.S. President Donald Trump's GOP presidential campaign strategy has involved repeatedly asking, "Where's Kamala?"
On Thursday, one of the nation's largest labor unions resoundingly responded: "At UAW Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan with 150 autoworkers."
That's what United Auto Workers communications director Jonah Furman said on social media as Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, joined UAW members at the Local 900 hall in Wayne following the union's endorsement for president
"To me, this election is real simple. It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?" UAW president Shawn Fain said at the swing state rally.
"On one side, we've got a billionaire who serves himself and his billionaire buddies. He lies, cheats, and steals his way to the top. He is the lapdog of the billionaire class," said Fain, who has called Trump a "scab."
"On the other side, we've got a badass woman who has stood on the picket line with working-class people," he continued. "Kamala Harris is a champion of the working class."
In 2019, Kamala Harris—then a U.S. senator from California running for president—walked a picket line with striking UAW workers in Reno, Nevada.
President Joe Biden made history last year as the first U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line when he rallied with UAW members outside of a General Motors plant in Belleville, Michigan as they fought for a fair contract. The Biden-Harris administration has often been called the most pro-labor presidency in modern history.
"You know, every time Donald Trump gets the chance, he trashes our union," Fain said. "He comes to Michigan and talks about how he's gonna bring back the auto industry... While he was the president of the United States, auto plants were fleeing the country."
Speaking at Thursday's rally, Harris said, "I am so deeply honored, as a lifelong supporter of union labor, for Tim and I to have the endorsement of the UAW."
"When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for," she added. "We stand for the people. We stand for the dignity of work. We stand for justice. We stand for equality. And we will fight for all of it."
Harris has won the endorsement of labor organizations including the AFL-CIO, National Education Association, National Nurses United, and—despite a dubious Trump promise to stop taxing tips—the service industry unions SEIU and UNITE HERE.
"We know which side we're on," Fain said Wednesday in a statement endorsing Harris. "We're voting for Kamala Harris in 2024. Because she's walked the walk. Because she supports working-class people when we fight for more. And because we don't need another billionaire in the White House."
"Donald Trump is no friend of the working class," Fain added. "Donald Trump is a scab. I'm a UAW member, and I'm voting for Kamala Harris for president."
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FEC Blasted Over Decision Not to Regulate Deepfakes Ahead of Election
"The FEC is the nation's election protection agency and it has authority to regulate deepfakes as part of its existing authority to prohibit fraudulent misrepresentations," said Robert Weissman of Public Citizen.
Aug 08, 2024
An announcement by the U.S. Federal Election Commission on Thursday that it will not take action to regulate artificial intelligence-generated "deepfakes" in political ads before the November elections amounted to "a shameful abrogation of its responsibilities," said a leading critic of the technology.
A year after consumer advocate Public Citizen filed a petition with the FEC to demand rulemaking that would prohibit a political candidate or advocacy group from misrepresenting political opponents using deliberately deceptive deepfakes—fake images generated with AI—FEC Chair Sean Cooksey told Axios the commission will not propose any new rules this year.
Cooksey, a Republican, said he plans to close the pending petition on Thursday without taking any action, telling Axios that rulemaking to limit or prohibit AI in campaign ads would "overstep the commission's limited legal authority to regulate political advertisements."
"The better approach is for the FEC to wait for direction from Congress and to study how AI is actually used on the ground before considering any new rules," said Cooksey.
In other words, said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, the FEC will "wait for deceptive fraud to occur and study its consequences before acting to prevent the fraud."
Weissman pointed out that while social media companies have made some rules to prevent political ads with AI from being posted, X owner Elon Musk himself recently posted a deepfake video on the platform that manipulated an image of Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, making it appear as though she was saying she was the "the ultimate diversity hire."
Musk posted the video in violation of his own company's rules, proving that "platforms cannot be trusted to self-regulate," Weissman said.
"Political deepfakes are rushing at us, threatening to disrupt electoral integrity. They have been used widely around the world and are starting to surface in the United States," added Weissman. "Requiring that political deepfakes be labeled doesn't favor any political party or candidate. It simply protects voters from fraud and chaos."
Weissman recently said on a newscast that without a ban on deepfakes in political ads, "it's entirely possible that we're going to have late-breaking deepfakes before Election Day, that show a candidate drunk or or saying something racist or behaving in an outrageous way, when they never did any of those things."
Weissman pushed back on Cooksey's claim that regulating deepfakes is out of the commission's realm.
"The FEC is the nation's election protection agency and it has authority to regulate deepfakes as part of its existing authority to prohibit fraudulent misrepresentations," said Weissman. "It should have acted on this issue long ago, before Public Citizen petitioned for rulemaking. When we did petition, the agency should have promptly acted to put a rule in place. It still could and should reverse the wrongheaded decision that Chair Cooksey has said is imminent, and act to protect voters and our elections."
Twenty state legislatures have taken action to prevent deepfakes from flooding local airwaves as voters prepare to head to the polls in the fall, but Weissman said the FEC's refusal to act "underscores the need for congressional action" and for the Federal Communications Commission to move forward with its own AI proposal.
The FCC in May proposed rules requiring on-air and written disclosures in broadcasters' political files when political ads contain AI-generated content.
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