US FTC aims to amend rule to control deepfakes

Washington: Alarmed by a surge in impersonation fraud or deepfakes around the globe, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sought to modify a rule that would prohibit the impersonation of individuals.

The Lina Khan-led agency said in a statement that it is taking this action in light of public outcry about the harms caused to consumers and to impersonated individuals.

The proposed rule changes would extend protections of the new rule on government and business impersonation that is being finalised by the Commission.

“Fraudsters are using voice cloning and other AI tools to impersonate individuals with eerie precision and at scale,” Khan posted on X early on Friday.

“FTC proposes to expand its impersonation rule to cover impersonation of individuals, so these fraudsters would pay hefty penalties,” she added. The Commission said it is also seeking comment on whether the revised rule should declare it unlawful for a firm, such as an AI platform that creates images, video, or text, “to provide goods or services that they know or have reason to know is being used to harm consumers through impersonation”.