China will begin enforcing its strict new rules around the creation of deepfakes from today, 11 January 2023.
Deepfakes are images and videos which combine mixed source material to produce a synthetic result. They allow users to replace one person's face with another in a video, or to put words into a speaker's mouth, with their ability to pass as convincing realities sometimes outpacing the progress of tools to spot them effectively.
In March 2022, a poor-quality deepfake of President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing Ukraine’s surrender to Russia surfaced on social media for a brief round of ridicule, before being removed.
Due to their realism, deepfakes have come into question and sparked disinformation fears around the globe.
In December 2022, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced it had finalised a set of rules governing “deep synthesis technologies”, which it identified as a "danger to national security and social stability...