The Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill was introduced in parliament on Sep. 9, 2024. The bill, which will amend the Parliamentary Elections Act 1954 (PEA) and the Presidential Elections Act 1991 (PrEA), introduces measures to restrict certain kinds of digitally manipulated content during elections.
This includes Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated misinformation, commonly known as deepfakes. Under the proposed changes, from the issuance of the writ to the close of polling on polling day, there will be a prohibition on digitally generated or manipulated Online Election Advertising (OEA) that realistically depicts a candidate saying or doing something they did not say or do. The proposed prohibition does not apply to content featuring non-candidates, nor does it take effect outside the period between the issuance and the writ and polling day.
Ahead of the bill's introduction, an MDDI spokesperson explained: "This is because we are looking at election-specific concerns. Therefore, we have proposed election-related legislation. After the election, there is a code of practice, through which we intend to set certain ground rules and expectations of what social media platforms should institute against such content.
" The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is engaging social media platforms in the coming months to develop a code of practice for dealing with digitally manipulated content both during and after the election. MDDI said that for the fi.