Bill passed to counter digitally manipulated content, deepfakes during elections
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 16 Oct 2024
Author: Chin Soo Fang
The new measure will prohibit the publication of online content that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something that he or she did not.
Deepfakes and other digitally manipulated content of candidates will be barred during the election period, under a new law to provide an additional safeguard against misinformation.
Parliament on Oct 15 passed the Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill to put in place the new measure.
Presenting the Bill for debate, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said it is a carefully calibrated response to augment Singapore’s election laws under the Parliamentary Elections Act and the Presidential Elections Act.
The new measure will prohibit the publication of online content that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something that he did not. This includes misinformation generated using artificial intelligence (AI), or deepfakes, and content made using non-AI techniques like Photoshop, dubbing and splicing.
Such content will be illegal from the time the Writ of Election is issued to the close of polling.
“It does not matter if the content is favourable or unfavourable to any candidate. The publication of such prohibited content during the election period, including by boosting, sharing and reposting existing content, will be an offence,” said Mrs Teo.
Candidates will be able to ask the Returning Officer (RO) to review content that has misrepresented them, and the RO can issue corrective directions to those who publish prohibited online election advertising content.
Corrective actions include taking down the offending content, or disabling access by Singapore users to such content during the election period.
Social media services that fail to comply may be fined up to $1 million upon conviction, while all others may be fined up to $1,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.
The new measure will not cover AI-generated or animated characters and cartoons, cosmetic alterations such as the use of beauty filters, or colour and lighting adjustments of images and videos, and entertainment content like memes.
Mrs Teo said it also does not extend to private or domestic communications shared between individuals or within a closed group such as group chats with family or a small group of friends, or news published by authorised news agencies.
The legislation will also provide a defence for a person who reshares messages and links without knowing that the content had been manipulated, she added.
The move comes ahead of a general election that must be held by November 2025.
To be protected under the new law, prospective candidates will first have to pay their election deposits and consent to their names being published on a list that will be put up on the Elections Department’s website some time before Nomination Day.
This will be the first time that the identities of prospective candidates are made public before Nomination Day.
Mrs Teo said candidates should also step forward to clarify and debunk content that they believe misrepresents them.
The Government will use a range of detection tools to assess if the content has been generated or manipulated through digital means, she said.
“We have placed significant weight on candidates’ declarations to the Returning Officer under this new prohibition, as a candidate is in the best position to speedily clarify if the content is a truthful and accurate representation of himself or herself,” said Mrs Teo.
“The Government is unlikely to have all the evidence of whether a candidate actually said or did something, especially if it was in a private setting.”
Making a false or misleading declaration is illegal. Those convicted can be fined up to $2,000, and become ineligible to be elected as a Member of Parliament or as president.
The public can also report potentially prohibited content of candidates to the authorities for review. To better equip them to make informed choices during the elections, the public will be notified about corrective directions that have been issued against offending content, Mrs Teo said.
Eight MPs raised questions about the Bill, with many, including Ms He Ting Ru (Sengkang GRC) and Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang), asking if the ban should cover private or domestic communication such as messages on WhatsApp and Telegram.
Mrs Teo said that when deciding whether a communication is of a private or domestic nature, the RO will consider various factors like the number of individuals in Singapore who can access the content, whether the group is closed or public, and the relationships between the individuals.
If the content is circulated in open groups which anyone can freely join, it will not be considered private or domestic communication, said the minister.
MPs like Dr Wan Rizal (Jalan Besar GRC) and Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked how a piece of content can be assessed to be realistic enough.
Mr Yip said that given broad terms such as “realistic but false representations” and “manipulated content”, there may be potential overreach in enforcement.
Clear definitions and guidelines are important so that the law meets its purpose while avoiding the stifling of legitimate political expression, he added.
In response, Mrs Teo noted that disinformation, even if believed by a small segment of society, can lead to drastic and violent consequences.
“We should not accept any segment, no matter how small, voting based on a false representation,” she said.
“We have no way of knowing in advance the extent to which it will alter the course of our elections. But why should we subject our elections to such risk at all, if we can prevent it or at least minimise it?”
Mr Ng asked if any candidate can request corrective directions to be issued, and not just the person who is the subject of the content.
He noted that a candidate who is benefiting from a deepfake may have no incentive to curb the spread of that deepfake.
Mrs Teo said other candidates and even non-candidates can make a request for review.
However, significant weight will be placed on the depicted candidate’s declaration, as he or she is in the best position to clarify if the content is an accurate representation of himself or herself.
Source: Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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