Canada’s top elections official is calling for a ban on misrepresentation of candidates and other key figures in the electoral process by manipulating their voices or images without their consent.
Several proposed changes to the Canada Elections Act are being proposed by Chief Elections Officer Stephane Perrault to address the use of deepfakes and other human-generated content to deceive voters. This is one of the countermeasures.
Perot said in an interview that he “hopes to persuade” lawmakers to expand the election reform bill currently before a House committee to include some new elements.
He said that while deepfakes and other brazen interference tactics have become part of the public conversation in the United States, they are still “a bit of a shock to the system” in Canada.
“We have to be aware that there are all kinds of issues that will arise during an election and be prepared to talk about them.”
Mr. Perot makes these legislative proposals in a report on protecting against threats to the electoral process that was recently submitted to both Congress and the Federal Inquiry into Foreign Interference.
Synthetic images, videos, and audio are becoming easier to generate through applications driven by artificial intelligence, allowing people to spread misinformation and sow confusion.
Such deepfake techniques may include replacing someone’s face in the video with another person’s face or manipulating that person’s voice.
“AI images of people doing things they’ve never done before, and audio and video production of people saying things they’ve never said, threatens democracy and makes it difficult for voters to know what’s real and what’s real,” Perot’s report said. “This could make it difficult to tell whether it is a deepfake or not.”
“The risks arising from the rapid evolution and availability of AI are not limited to foreign interference, but include the ability of foreign state actors to leverage the power of technology to influence or undermine the electoral process. It is clear that there is a possibility of creating a fake.
Currently, the election law’s impersonation provisions prohibit falsely representing an election official, election administrator, candidate, or representative of a political party or riding group for the purpose of misleading, the report said. I am doing it.
However, the report adds that the law does not cover scenarios where someone manipulates the audio or images of party leaders or other designated key figures to create deepfakes.
The bill, which is currently being passed by Congress, would improve the provisions on impersonation and related provisions on misleading publications by making clear that the prohibition applies regardless of the medium, manner or place in which the misrepresentation is made. is proposing changes.
However, these fine-tuning “does not address the threat of deepfakes in any way,” the report said.
Perot recommends expanding the impersonation provisions to cover misrepresentations using audio or image manipulation. He also advocates for the relevant provisions to apply outside of election periods.
Perot acknowledged that it is healthy for people to express concerns about the electoral process and its integrity, even if the basis for those concerns turns out to be false. But he has long advocated for outlawing false statements aimed at interfering with the conduct of elections or undermining their legitimacy.
The current bill would add provisions to prevent the spread of inaccurate information, but the amendments stop short of banning statements aimed at undermining the legitimacy of elections, the report said. are.
“Given that this is the very objective being pursued by some foreign state actors and is perhaps the most harmful form of foreign interference to our democracy, it needs to be addressed.”
Mr. Perot is proposing amending election laws to prohibit false information intentionally spread with the purpose of undermining confidence in elections and their results.
The Chief Electoral Officer’s report also calls for changes that go beyond the scope of the current bill and would need to be considered in a new bill.
These include proposed legal reforms to increase transparency in election communications and strengthen the integrity of political nominations and leadership contests.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024.
