On June 3, 2024, a majority of parties in the Danish Parliament announced that they had agreed to general terms on artificial intelligence use by parliamentary parties, in particular the use of deepfake photos and sound.
The agreement was signed by the Social Democrats, Liberal, Denmark Democrats, Green Left, Moderate, Conservative People’s, Red-Green Alliance, Danish Social Liberal, and Alternative parties. The Danish People’s Party and the Liberal Alliance Party declined to join the agreement, arguing that it restricts “the ordinary satire and humor that is used in politics.” Members of the Danish People’s Party previously created a video featuring the Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen that became the impetus for negotiating a deepfake agreement.
The agreement states that its purpose is “[t]o protect democratic dialogue while at the same time preserving the right to express oneself and the opportunity to use politically satire,” while ensuring that the voters are not deceived or misinformed.
The parties undertake to inform and hold their entire organizations, including youth organizations tied to the parties, informed of and accountable under the agreement. (¶ 1.)
In accordance with the agreement, the parties undertake to only use deepfakes of politicians from another political party when that politician has given his or her specific consent. Politicians are still allowed to make deepfakes of themselves or members of their own party, provided the political colleague is informed of the deepfake. (¶ 1.)
Moreover, any deepfake media must contain a label stating that the media is a deepfake, for example, by including language stating that “this video is false and created with the help of artificial intelligence.” (¶ 2.)
Per the agreement, any disagreement between the signatory parties on whether the agreement has been violated must first be addressed directly between the disagreeing parties, to ensure continued support for the agreement. (¶ 3.)
The parties also agreed to work to create a general code of conduct on the responsible use of artificial intelligence as part of political activity. The general code will be incorporated into and update the gentleman’s agreement on fake news that all Danish Parliament parties signed as part of the 2019 election.
Elin Hofverberg, Law Library of Congress
July 1, 2024
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