In-depth counterfeiting technology requires legislation to regulate
11 Internet companies due to "dangerous technology" interviewed
□ Our reporter Pu Xiaolei
Because of a "dangerous technology", 11 Internet companies were interviewed.
Recently, the State Internet Information Office and the Ministry of Public Security have directed Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other local cybersecurity and informatization departments and public security agencies to comply with the law in response to voice social software and applications involving "deep forgery" technologies that have not recently performed security assessment procedures. Interview with 11 companies including Inke and Xiaomi.
The public using smart phones may not be unfamiliar with products made with deep forgery technology.
Not long ago, a popular "Ant Hey" appeared in the field of short video.
Players only need to upload a photo, and the person in the photo can twist their necks and stare to sing "Ats Hey".
In 2019, the domestic smashing face-changing software "ZAO" is based on deep forgery technology.
With PS, pictures may not necessarily have the truth; with deep forgery, what you see and hear may not be the truth.
But unlike using PS, even ordinary people who do not have the corresponding technology can easily use deep forgery technology to achieve "face change".
Yao Zhiwei, a professor at the Law School of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily on March 26 that the widespread use of deep forgery technology itself poses a greater risk. The risk lies not only in infringing on citizens’ individual rights, but also in terms of causing public safety. danger.
If the use of this technology is not regulated, it will have dire consequences.
Zhang Tao, director of the Business Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society and director of Beijing Huaxun Law Firm, said that deep forgery technology not only involves legal issues such as personality rights and portrait rights protected by the Civil Code, but also involves the extraction, identification, and use of personal biological information. And protection and many other aspects.
Therefore, when the legislature formulates the personal information protection law, data security law and other relevant laws, it should make corresponding system designs for these new issues.
Low threshold and high efficiency contain greater threats
The so-called deep forgery refers to that the relevant software uses AI "face changing", voice simulation, video generation and other methods to tamper and forge existing images, sounds, and videos to automatically generate audio and video products.
It is undeniable that deep forgery technology has a certain positive effect.
This technology can assist scientific research, teaching, artistic creation, etc. For example, in the field of education, realistic virtual teachers can make digital teaching more interactive and interesting, and synthetic historical figures explaining videos can make audiences more immersive.
However, compared with the positive effects of deep forgery technology, its potential threats and security risks have attracted more attention.
Although before the advent of deep forgery technology, there are also technologies that can achieve "face changing", such as PS technology.
However, compared with the previous technology, the deep forgery technology has the advantages of higher efficiency, lower threshold and higher quality, which makes the technology have more significant advantages in manufacturing false portraits and videos.
"Deep forgery technology with multiple advantages allows ordinary people to easily'change their faces' by themselves, and the cost of producing false portrait images and videos is extremely low. With the assistance of both high simulation and high efficiency artificial intelligence, massive amounts of' "Face-changing" images and videos can be generated and disseminated at any time, sweeping the Internet in a short time. For such a technology, if it is not regulated, it will undoubtedly have terrible consequences. Therefore, in this context, there have been legislative actions at home and abroad. Respond." Yao Zhiwei said.
Endangering the public interest and even national security
Once in-depth forgery technology is widely used, it will inevitably cause infringements on the legitimate rights and interests of the public, such as persons and property.
For example, the use of in-depth forgery technology to achieve transfer of flowers and trees will constitute an infringement of the reputation of others.
Making false pornographic videos is one of the earliest and most common illegal uses of deep forgery technology.
Using this technology, the faces of some well-known singers, movie stars and other public figures can be transferred to porn stars to fake realistic pornographic scenes.
Cheng Xiao, a professor at the School of Law of Tsinghua University, pointed out that once these fake pornographic videos are disseminated, the public may be indistinguishable from the true and false, resulting in serious damage to the victim’s reputation.
Even if it is not used to make pornographic videos, deep forgery technology can completely infringe the reputation rights of natural persons, legal persons or unincorporated organizations by creating false videos or audios, thereby causing property losses and mental damage to them.
Not only that, deep forgery technology can also pose a threat to public safety, economic security, and national security.
Yao Zhiwei said that once the in-depth forgery technology is abused and the public cannot distinguish between true and false, they may doubt any images and videos that contain portraits. This will undoubtedly greatly impact the credibility of the media and the government and cause significant damage to the social trust system. Lead to a serious crisis of social trust.
"For example, in terms of economic order, people with ulterior motives can use deep forgery technology to create a fake video of a listed company CEO claiming that the company is about to go bankrupt. We can imagine the impact of this video on the company's stock price." Yao Zhiwei said.
The Civil Code has specific provisions on this
Cheng Xiao pointed out that the abuse of in-depth forgery technology can cause damage to the legitimate rights and interests of the public, disrupt social, economic, and political order, harm social public interests, and even endanger national security. Therefore, the laws of many countries, including our country, are against the law. It makes specifications.
When my country was codifying the Civil Code, some units proposed that the use of information technology to "deeply fake" the portraits and voices of others not only infringed on the personality rights of natural persons, but could also cause severe social impacts and endanger national security and public interests. It is recommended that the law respond to issues such as "face changing" brought about by deep forgery technology.
Later, the Civil Code adopted this opinion when it was enacted-Article 1019, paragraph 1, stipulates that no organization or individual may deface, deface, or use information technology to forge others’ portraits. right.
Without the consent of the right holder, the portrait of the right holder may not be produced, used, or published, except as otherwise provided by law.
"For the risks that may be caused by deep forgery technology, the relevant provisions in the Civil Code can already solve the problem of civil liability. It can be said that a certain response has been made in advance. This shows that my country's legislature attaches great importance to similar issues. But it is undeniable. There is still a lot of room for the network legal system to be improved." Zhang Tao said.
Zhang Tao believes that from the face-changing software "ZAO" in 2019 to the interview of 11 Internet companies, the potential problems or threats of deep forgery technology have gradually emerged.
Although there are no cases of infringement disputes due to deep forgery of technology in our country, we must take precautions to deal with it.
Therefore, the legislature should improve the network legal system and establish a complete set of new systems for such new issues.
Necessary restrictions should be imposed on forgery scenarios
It is worth noting that the "Implementation Outline for the Construction of a Rule of Law Society (2020-2025)" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that it is necessary to "formulate and perfect new media formats and algorithm recommendations, in-depth forgeries, etc., such as webcast, self-media, and knowledge community Q&A Standardized management methods for the application of new technologies".
Zhang Tao believes that the personal information protection law, data security law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations that are being formulated should be formulated and revised specifically for such issues in order to respond to and solve social hot issues.
"When formulating the Personal Information Protection Law and the Data Security Law, regulations should be further strengthened for the scenarios in which deep forgery technology can be involved or applied. Most of the current relevant legislation emphasizes universal provisions and application, and it is suitable for many specific and important application scenarios. The regulations are not perfect, therefore, it is recommended to strengthen the legislation in the practical application.” Zhang Tao said.
Zhang Tao suggested that the development and application of deep forgery technology, especially market-oriented applications, should be supervised as necessary; audio and video "works" that apply deep forgery technology should have watermarks or other distinctive signs to remind users to pay attention ; Necessary restrictions should be imposed on the specific scenes where the deep forgery technology "face-changing" imitation sound is applied.