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Mesbahianis anIPilogueWriter and a 2L JD Candidate atOsgoodeHall Law School.
Thanks to deepfakes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether a video is real or not. Deepfakes are machine learning processes that video and audio recordings using the images and sounds belonging to individuals not present in the original recordings in order to produce . As the technology behind deepfakes further develops, it becomes . What results is the widespread use of deepfakes for nefarious purposes, such as pornography ( of its use according to a 2019 inquiry), and influencing elections. The rapid development of deepfakes also threatens to influence our understanding of the world. What if we reach a point where it is impossible for a layperson to be certain of the veracity of a video in which someone is saying or doing something controversial? Politicians can then exploit the doubts that fill our perception to avoid accountability when real scandals arise. Danielle Citron and Bobby Chesney, law professors at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas respectively, call this the “liar’s dividend”. Because we are aware that deepfakes enable anyone to say or do anything in a video or audio recording, we lose trust in our eyes and ears, allowing accurate information to be veiled as “” in unprecedented ways.
Legal Responses to Deepfakes
Currently, that explicitly criminalizes abusing deepfakes. While remedies grounded in copyright infringement, defamation, and violations of privacy and impersonation in elections may cover deepfakes, we require a uniform and direct effort to combat their nefarious use. As Citron explains, a coordinated international response is necessary given how easily accessible falsified videos are from different parts of the world. We must also address this issue cautiously. As Chesney notes, granting the government regulatory authority to determine what is or isn’t true tends “”. In other words, the concern is that undue censorship may arise in the name of protecting the accuracy of information.
The recently proposed includes privacy provisions that may directly impact the regulation of deepfakes. Despite invoking the Charter, the Act “”. As Emily Laidlaw, law professor at the University of Calgary, explains, while the Act invokes human rights language, it is essentially framed as a , making corporations and tech platforms responsible for ensuring the privacy interest of their users and liable in case of a breach. Therefore, if the proposed framework is used to regulate deepfakes, we may return to the problem that I mentioned in my : outsourcing our fundamental rights to corporations and expanding corporate power as opposed to limiting it.