Google Comes With 'Mandatory Disclosure' for Election Ads

Google’s verified advertisers now have to disclose the use of AI when it is used in an inauthentic manner, depicting people or events. The company has come up with this to combat the spread of images or audio which are digitally manipulated in order to gain political mileage or gains.

The mandatory policy would start from November. The policy underlines on the advertisements, which would use AI which would have contents in connection to the elections. This would include the use of voice/audio, image and video.

Google has listed that if the AI technology is being levered to bring in people or events which have not occurred, then the disclosure should be maintained. The altering of events or producing fake invents  before the elections, which are to be held in the US and other states have brought this into focus and thus the policy.

Google’s Mandiant, its cyber security firm, has recently said that there has been an increase in campaigns which are manipulated using the AI technology. It also said that the impact so far is seen to be limited and that campaigns from groups linked to Russia, China and other countries have been seen, reported the Financial Times.

In 2017, Google had introduced features to report contents which were misleading. The EU had asked Google and Meta to add more such features which could report or label false information.

A fund-raising group, called Never Back Down, which was supporting Florida governor Ron DeSantis had leveraged AI in ads when it used former President Donald Trump’s voice as reading a social media post he posted.

The whole point of the policy is to combat misleading/ synthesised/ manipulative or fake information. Groups which has access to small scale resources can generate high quality campaigns using AI technology. In 2020, Face book which is a platform to reach people with political ads had come up with policy for videos. The X.com, former Twitter also has a policy since the year 2019, which bans all political ads on a global level. The policy has been reversed last month, reported the Financial Times.

Regarding this, Google’s new political policy read, “In mid-November 2023, we are updating our Political content policy to require that all verified election advertisers in regions where verification is required must prominently disclose when their ads contain synthetic content that inauthentically depicts real or realistic-looking people or events. This disclosure must be clear and conspicuous, and must be placed in a location where it is likely to be noticed by users. This policy will apply to image, video, and audio content,” reported Business Today.

The mandatory policy of Google has stepped in as the election in US and India is to take place soon.