Source: European Parliament
Protecting democratic processes and values, including the right to stand for public office, is a priority for the Commission.
In addition, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act[1], prohibits certain manipulative or deceptive uses of AI technologies that are likely to cause significant harm[2].
It also imposes transparency obligations on providers and deployers of AI systems generating deep fake contents[3]. Violations are sanctioned by administrative fines.
However, deepfakes are not criminalised as such by the AI Act, which is a product safety legislation.
The Commission Recommendation on inclusive and resilient elections (EU) 2023/2829, adopted as part of the 2023 Defence of Democracy package, highlights the highest democratic standards in elections.
This recommendation also addresses different challenges to the election information environment, including so called ‘deep fakes’, as a vector of disinformation.
It also encourages political parties and campaign organisations to adopt campaign pledges and codes of conduct on election integrity and fair campaigning.
In these, political parties and campaigning organisations should commit to refrain from producing, using or disseminating falsified, fabricated, doxed or stolen data or material, including deep fakes generated by artificial intelligence systems.