The British government has said that creating sexually explicit, deepfake images without consent will be a criminal offense. The government will pass separate legislation that will declare it a criminal act in Wales and England.
A deepfake can be an image or a video made with AI by merging the face of one person with the face of another one to create a misleading image, and most of them are of a sexual nature. As AI is advancing, it will soon be possible to come up with an AI-generated video of a person by simply providing an image of a person and giving a few text prompts to the system.
A recent Microsoft research project revealed the same model that Microsoft is working on. It is not difficult to comprehend what these systems are capable of and how they can make life easy for deepfake creators.
The creation of explicit deepfakes will be punishable
The Ministry of Justice said that the law will apply regardless of the fact that the image was intended to be shared by the creator or not. In the case of sharing, there will be more serious consequences for breaching the law, which will lead to a jail sentence.
Women are often the most vulnerable, as they are mostly targeted by using their faces to create pornographic content. Public figures, mostly celebrities, are also victims of this offense, as the deepfake has become almost a mainstream trend with the advancement of technology in the recent times.
According to Yvette Cooper, a shadow home secretary, that the creation of such material is outright a gross violation of a person’s privacy, and the government should not be tolerated by the government. She said,
“Technology is increasingly being manipulated to manufacture misogynistic content and is emboldening perpetrators of Violence Against Women and Girls,” she added, “It’s essential that the police and prosecutors are equipped with the training and tools required to rigorously enforce these laws in order to stop perpetrators from acting with impunity.”
Source: BBC.
Limitations of law and hurdles in its enforcement
According to experts familiar with the subject, that culprits are difficult to find because of the nature of the tech, and that the culprits may go away with their crime despite the legislation, as it is a worldwide problem and is not limited to a region.
A law was passed last year that made the sharing of deepfakes illegal, but the new law will make it illegal from the very start of the process as it will prohibit the creation of any sexually explicit deepfake without permission, according to the ministry. As deepfakes can be used to distress, humiliate, or alarm the victim.
Some experts are skeptical of the fact that the law will only criminalize if a person can prove that another person has created the false image, as the burden of proof lies on who alleges it, and providing proof will not be easy in this scenario. But it is also a fact that no one can be charged without proof.
The new law will be applicable to images of people over 18 years of age because minors are already covered by the law. Despite the fact that how effective the law is and its enforcement, it at least gives the message that not only the distribution but also the creation of such material is also immoral and misogynistic.
The original story can be seen here.
