Hi Friend –

I’m writing to you today about a very serious and growing threat to your privacy and safety as well as the very foundations of our democracy itself: deepfakes.

Deepfakes are the end products of artificial intelligence (AI) used to create convincing images, audio, or videos of people that are simply not real. Previously, this AI-generated content was clearly fake and often time-consuming and expensive to make. But now the explosive and unchecked growth of AI in recent months means that anyone with access to the internet can easily create deepfakes – of you, your family, celebrities, or politicians.  

Just last week, sexually-explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift went viral on Twitter/X, igniting real concerns from users about AI being used as a tool for online harassment. [1] Another deepfake robocall spread throughout New Hampshire with President Biden’s voice designed to interfere in that state’s primary election. [2]

No one should have their face or voice used without their consent. And with more than 50 significant elections scheduled this year in democracies around the world, including the U.S. presidential election, now is the time for decisive action on deepfakes. Please sign our petition to Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Youtube today: Ban deepfakes from your social media platforms and back-up your manipulated-media policies with strong enforcement.

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Deepfakes are going to be one of the major weapons used this year by malicious actors in attempts to erode public trust in our democracy. Misinformation and disinformation were already significant threats to our elections, and deepfakes add yet another layer. But Big Tech companies can take action to immediately reduce the harmful impact of deepfakes.

Last year, Accountable Tech worked closely with partners from across the tech policy and democratic integrity spaces to release our new framework of readily actionable policies: Democracy By Design. [3] Since then, we've seen companies announce policies to implement some of these recommendations. In fact, Meta's announced new policies this week to enforce labeling of images generated by artificial intelligence and manipulated media. [4] These steps are important but don't go far enough at a time when emergent technology has the potential to undermine faith in the democratic process.

Now more than ever, we need these companies to take decisive steps to safeguard the integrity of our elections. Major social media platforms should implement these policies quickly to protect the integrity of our elections and trust in our democracy.

Sign our petition to the Big Tech companies today and demand that they ban deepfakes on their social media platforms and implement safeguards to protect the integrity of our elections.

Thanks for speaking out today – and after you take action, please use the sharing tools to help us spread the word about this important issue!

Sincerely,

Nicole Gill
Co-founder and Executive Director
Accountable Tech

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