China wants to restrict deepfakes by law

In China they are serious about the proliferation of deepfakes, adaptations with Artificial Intelligence to modify digital content and turn it into realistic simulations of human beings.

China has presented a bill (by the Cyberspace Administration of China), with which they intend to put an end to this practice. They seek to ensure that the Internet is a tool for good and not for what it has recently become.

“Some criminals use deepfake services to produce, copy, publish, and spread illegal information; slander and degrade reputation; and impersonate others to commit fraud and other illegal acts, not only to harm vital interests, but even to endanger the national security and social stability,” says the draft regulation.

The heads of 27 companies attended the event, in which Chinese regulators explained their desire to that Internet platforms are both innovative, problem-solving, strong advocates of Chinese values.

Any platform or company that uses machine learning or virtual reality to transform any online content, which the Administration calls a “deep synthesis service provider”, now you are looking for that”respect morals and social ethics, adhere to the correct political direction”.

If used this process mentioned above for any task, the project proposes that it be marked as a digital creation to remove any doubts about authenticity and provenance.

The standard stipulates a fine of between 10,000 and 100,000 yuan (from €1,400 to €14,000) for first-time offenders, but violations can also lead to civil and criminal prosecution.

This will affect many applications that have appeared that make creating a deepfake very easy. For example, the viral application ZAO, which by taking a selfie allowed you to embed yourself in the faces of movie stars.

The Chinese Government already announced restrictions for this type of act in 2019 for 2020. Everything stems from a viral phenomenon that took place in 2018 (it reached 100 million visits on Weibo), in which a deepfake was created by the user Change-faces man in which he placed the face of the actress Yang Mi in the body of Athena Chu, in a scene from a 1994 Chinese television series.