Government to progress bill that would ban online deepfakes

The proposed legislation has been put forward by Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow-Wexford Malcolm Byrne

junior justice minister Catherine Ardagh said there are 'existing criminal law provisions that address the misuse of deepfakes in certain circumstances', such as Coco’s Law and defamation laws, with the EU Council and Parliament also agreeing to ban AI systems that generate non-consensual explicit images. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Government has agreed to progress a Bill that would ban deepfakes and make it an offence to use a person’s likeness or voice without their permission.

However, junior justice minister Catherine Ardagh also argued that there are existing laws in place and new laws coming down the tracks that may mean the creation of a new criminal offence may not be “the best strategy”.