Meta's Stand Against Deepfakes: New Policy Requires Disclosure In Political Ads

Meta announced on Wednesday that it would force political advertisers to disclose when they use altered or digitally created media. Such content, known as deepfakes, is made using artificial intelligence tools and may be misused during elections to attribute information to a well-known individual falsely.

Reuters

What does Meta's new policy state?

In a blog post, the owner of Facebook and Instagram said that it would require advertisers to disclose during the ad-buying process "whenever a social issue, electoral, or political ad contains a photorealistic image or video, or realistic sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered."

Advertisers would essentially have to reveal when AI tools or other digital methods have been used to alter or create political, social, or election-related advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

When will this policy be enforced?

Starting 2024, advertisers would have to disclose when ads show events that did not happen, when there's altered footage of a real event, or whenever a real event is being depicted without the true image, video, or audio recording of the actual event.

Also read: Is Mark Zuckerberg's Dream Dead? Meta To Layoff Employees From Metaverse Unit

Reuters

According to Nick Clegg, Meta's president for global affairs, the policy would go into effect in 2024, before elections in the United States and India.

What else is Meta doing?

Earlier, Meta has barred political advertisers from using generative AI tools for ads. In addition, the company had announced last month that it was expanding advertisers' access to AI-powered advertising tools that are able to create backgrounds, image adjustments, and versions of ad copy through text prompts.

"If we determine that an advertiser doesn¡¯t disclose as required, we will reject the ad and repeated failure to disclose may result in penalties against the advertiser," Meta wrote. The company also stated that it would put labels on such ads.

Reuters

Also read: Meta Says It Trained Latest AI Using Public Instagram, Facebook Posts

In a similar move, Google now also requires advertisers to disclose "synthetic" media. Such policies point to the acceptance of AI and synthetic content across the internet in the long-run.

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