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The Federal Communications Commission has fined Lingo Telecom $1 million for transmitting robocalls impersonating President Joe Biden earlier this year, where an AI replica of Biden's voice was used to trick and persuade voters in the New Hampshire primary election not to go to the polls.
Lingo Telecom mislabeled and distributed the robocalls, which were commissioned by a former political consultant who now faces a $6 million fine. The consultant, Steve Kramer, reportedly paid a New Orleans magician about $150 to use AI tech from Eleven Labs to make the fake Biden voice. Kramer has admitted he paid to get the fake voice made, but has not admitted any legal wrongdoing. He faces 26 criminal charges over his actions.
"If AI is being used, that should be made clear to any consumer, citizen, and voter who encounters it. The FCC will act when trust in our communications networks is on the line," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement on the Lingo fine this week.
In addition to paying the fine, Lingo Telecom will also be required to adhere to the FCC's "STIR/SHAKEN" rules to prevent such incidents from occurring again in the future. The rules require telecoms networks to obtain the legal identities of their customers and affiliates through a Know Your Customer (KYC) process. The rules essentially require networks to take more steps to actually verify the truthfulness of the data they transmit. These standards are intended to make it substantially harder for impersonators or threat actors to pretend to be someone they're not when using telecom networks at scale.
"Whether at the hands of domestic operatives seeking political advantage or sophisticated foreign adversaries conducting malign influence or election interference activities, the potential combination of the misuse of generative AI voice-cloning technology and caller ID spoofing over the US communications network presents a significant threat," said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal in a statement. "This settlement sends a strong message that communications service providers are the first line of defense against these threats and will be held accountable to ensure they do their part to protect the American public."
Since the robocalls circulated, the real President Biden has called for a ban on AI voice impersonations. The FCC has repeatedly said that AI robocalls are already illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Unfortunately, AI-powered political interference remains a concern. Users on social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, have been able to uncover suspected bot accounts by replying to them with phrases that begin with language like "ignore all previous instructions" (though such methods are not a foolproof way to verify an account's authenticity).
Russian bot farms posting replies to political figures have continued to spam across X, The Wall Street Journal reports, finding that the issue has been a problem since at least 2022 when Elon Musk bought the social media platform. Facebook and Instagram have also found bot networks spreading political propaganda on their platforms, and removed over 2,000 accounts earlier this year tied to Israel, Iran, and China, to name a few.