Colorado Passes New Regulatory to Protect Elections from Deepfake Scams

Colorado passed the new law, HB 24-1147, in defense of election integrity against growing deepfakes concerns. It is considered a new law in force until 60 days after the main elections and 90 days after the general elections. Whatever the case may be, though, the subject of the post must address deepfake content such as exploited video, audio, or picture, tailored to mislead the viewers.

It considers deepfake content as harmless jokes, though political advertisements use rapid enhancement to spread wrong information. The more deepfake detection technology is state-of-the-art, the harder it would get to detect such fake content. Founder and CEO of Idea Grove Scott Baradell also pointed out some very regular signs of bad lip-syncing and abnormal facial expressions that were super helpful to show the deepfakes-even though the reliability of such cues is very low.

Deepfake Legislation Prevents Political Manipulation 

One of the primary purposes of this act is to make political advertisements via deepfake technology with malicious intent against voter security. Deepfakes epitomize the worst of AI, said Global AI Council board member Nadja Atwal. “They are the worst of AI,” she explained while elaborating on how deepfakes dangerously and deceptively manipulate images, videos, and audio.

The Colorado lawmakers hail this as very important legislation for balance in fair elections, but they accept the upcoming challenge. The CEO of DR.LISA AI, Dr. Lisa Palm, is in agreement about the complexity of this law and warns that scammers can’t comply with it. She further said, “We need to be vigilant as consumers and ensure we are not being fooled by exploited content.”.

Balancing Election Security with Free Speech Concerns

The problem with such laws as HB 24-1147 is that they are supposed to balance security needs without violating the rights tied to free speech. Others are skeptical because they argue the law can undermine First Amendment rights barring the protection of free expression. Colorado is not alone in putting efforts into fighting deepfakes, while some other states are on the same estimations to manage deepfake emergence in political aspects. In the development of technology, democratic ways are to be secured by laws like HB 24-1147. The two major things in fighting against exploitation in the rapidly enhancing online world are awareness and alertness.