Singapore tables law to prohibit deepfakes during elections
The Bill proposes to prohibit the publication of digitally generated or manipulated online election advertising, from the issuance of the Election Writ to the close of polling on polling day.
SINGAPORE - Singapore has proposed a new law that will prohibit the publication of deepfakes content, including audio, visual and audiovisual material of candidates during the election period.
The Bill, tabled in the Parliament on Monday, proposes to prohibit the publication of digitally generated or manipulated online election advertising (OEA), from the issuance of the Election Writ to the close of polling on polling day.
"This prohibition will apply only to OEA depicting persons who are running as candidates in an election,” the republic’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said in a statement.
The Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill introduced by the MDDI will amend the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 (PEA) and the Presidential Elections Act 1991 (PrEA).
OEA refers to any information or material accessible from the Internet that can reasonably be regarded to promote or enhance the standing of any political party, candidate or group of candidates.
Once the Bill is passed, candidates can make a request to the returning officer (RO) to review content that may breach the prohibition and issue corrective directions.
It will be an illegal practice for candidates to knowingly make a false or misleading declaration in a request about the impugned content, and can be fined or the vacation of an election as set out under the PEA and PrEA.
Under the proposed new law, the RO can issue corrective directions to individuals who publish such content, social media services, and Internet Access Service Providers to take down offending content, or to disable access by Singapore users to such content during the election period.
Failure to comply with a corrective direction is punishable by a fine, or imprisonment, or both.
Social media services that fail to comply may be fined up to S$1 million upon conviction, while all others may be fined up to S$1,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.
The Bill will be tabled for a second reading at the next Parliament sitting.
Meanwhile, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will introduce a new Code of Practice requiring specified social media services to put in place measures to prevent and counter the abuse of digitally manipulated content on their service.
The IMDA will engage social media services in the coming months to work out the details of the Code.
"The Bill and the proposed Code of Practice are important steps to preserve the integrity of our electoral process and protect Singaporeans from online manipulated content,” MDDI said. - BERNAMA
