Leanne Manas is a well-recognized face on South African television. Towards the tip of 2023, the morning news anchor’s face appeared elsewhere: in fake news and pretend promoting through which “she” gave the impression to be promoting various get-rich-quick products or schemes.

It quickly became apparent that Manas had fallen victim to deepfaking. Deepfakes include the use of artificial intelligence tools for manipulating images, video and audio. And it doesn’t require cutting-edge technical know-how. Software like FaceSwap and ZaoAppthat are free to download, allow anyone to create deepfakes.

Deepfakes were originally utilized in the entertainment industry. For example, an actress in France who was unable to film her soap opera roles in person resulting from COVID restrictions played the role anyway Thanks to deepfakes. Deep learning algorithms are utilized in the healthcare industry and are chargeable for deepfakes Detect tumors by comparing patterns in images.

But these positive applications are few and much between. There are increasing ones global concerns concerning the impact that deepfakes could have Democratic elections. Current reports suggest that these are deepfakes ascending in South Africa and so forth South Africans apparently find it difficult to acknowledge them.

It is subsequently worrying that the South African government has not yet taken any legislative steps to combat deepfakes – especially with national elections within the country scheduled for later this yr. I’m a legal scholar specializing in sports law, with a selected concentrate on image rights. I’m particularly thinking about recognizing an individual’s image rights and the legal situation if their image is misused without their consent. This also includes the usage of deepfakes.

In my LLD thesisI argued that an individual’s image needs clear legal protection, bearing in mind the realities of digital media and the indisputable fact that many individuals comparable to influencers, athletes and celebrities earn income from marketing their image online. The passage of laws will provide legal certainty in South Africa with regards to a person’s image.

International examples

Various states within the US have already taken motion against deepfakes, mostly in reference to elections. Texas, for instance, was one among the primary states criminalize the usage of deepfakes, especially if the content of the deepfake pertains to political elections. It also happened recently a second bill which targets sexually explicit deepfakes. So it’s a criminal offense to create a deepfake video with the intent to harm a politician or influence the election final result, or to distribute sexually explicit deepfakes without the person’s consent with the intent to embarrass them.

Maryland and Massachusetts, have now proposed laws that will explicitly ban the usage of deepfakes. Maryland plans to focus on deepfakes that might influence politics; Massachusetts desires to criminalize the usage of deepfakes for what’s already “criminal or tortious (illegal) conduct.”

In 2020, California became the primary US state to criminalize the usage of deepfakes to advertise and advertise political campaigns. The AB 730 invoice Makes it a criminal offense to publish audio, images or video recordings that give a false and harmful impression of a politician’s words or actions. Although the bill doesn’t specifically mention deepfakes, it is obvious that AI-made fakes are its primary concern.

In 2023, the Governor of New York signed Senate Bill 1042A. The aim is to ban the spread of deepfakes generally and not only in reference to elections.

At least 4 federal deepfakes laws have been examined. These include the Identifying Outputs of Generative Adversarial Networks Act and the Deepfakes Accountability Act.

Protect image rights

There is currently no recognition of image rights in South African case law or laws. Image rights are legally different from copyright. The scope of copyright protection alone wouldn’t be enough to handle the issue of deepfakes in court.

I argue for a legal intervention that recognizes individual image rights. By recognizing a picture right, the image is protected against unauthorized use. This includes not only the illegal use of a single image for industrial purposes, but additionally the fight against deepfakes, whether related to elections and politicians or any manipulation of an individual’s image with malicious intent.

Image rights laws is crucial. It can:

  • clearly define the image of an individual

  • Indicate when there may be an infringement of the image

  • provide the owner of the image rights with legal remedies within the event of unauthorized use.

All of this can assist regulate deepfake situations. The malicious and fraudulent nature of deepfakes may end up in the image rights holder suffering significant harm. It is time for the South African legislature to handle these situations by providing individuals with the crucial protection.

This article was originally published at theconversation.com