AI Deepfake Panic is Killing Free Speech

Taylor Lorenz’s Power User

There's a bill right now in congress called the NO FAKES act that claims it will protect you from deepfakes. "In this new era of AI, we need real laws to protect real people," Rep. Maria Salazar said when announcing the bill. "The NO FAKES Act is simple and sacred: you own your identity, not Big Tech, not scammers, not algorithms."

As usual, none of this is what the law actually does!!!!!

The NO FAKES act is actually an incredibly sloppy and dangerous piece of legislation that could destroy lives, eradicate privacy, and lead to sweeping censorship of journalistic and constitutionally protected speech. There's a reason that major civil liberties orgs are sounding the alarm about this proposed law.

The NO FAKES act is "something that could change the internet forever, harming speech and innovation from here on out," The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently declared.

This bill would be a disaster for online speech and free expression. The Center for Democracy and Technology published an open letter opposing the proposed law. Kate Ruane is the director for the Center for Democracy and Technology's Free Expression Project. She joined this week's episode of my Free Speech Friday series to break down what the NO FAKES act really says and why we need to fight back against it.

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