Press Release: 2024-10-17

MBA files reply comments on AI-generated content in political advertising

 

Wed, October 16

In the Matter of Disclosure and Transparency of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Content in Political Advertisements, MB Docket No. 24-211.

The Massachusetts Broadcasters Association, in combination with the state broadcasters associations of 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, filed Joint Reply Comments arguing that:

(1) the FCC’s focus on broadcast political advertising while ignoring political advertising on all other media, including online ads that are far more likely to contain AI deepfakes, is misguided,

(2) requiring broadcasters to add a disclaimer to all political ads produced using any form of AI will only confuse the public, as the use of AI in production chain equipment (e.g., auto-contrast) is benign,

(3) the FCC’s existing political advertising regulations are already very burdensome, and adding duties to investigate the presence of AI use in political ads and to insert AI disclaimers only adds to that burden,

(4) since the FCC lacks authority over advertisers, advertisers are free to lie to stations about whether AI was used in production, negating the purpose of the entire proposal while putting broadcasters at risk of punishment for not inserting a disclaimer,

(5) adding disclaimers to ads after they have been delivered to the station will create 34-second or longer ads, disrupting the station’s other ads and programming that are designed around 30-second ads,

(6) placing an AI disclaimer requirement on broadcasters and not on other media will drive political advertisers away from broadcast advertising and toward online platforms, economically weakening broadcasters while driving ad dollars to online platforms that are currently the principal source of AI deepfakes,

(7) the AI disclaimer requirement clearly interferes with political speech in violation of the First Amendment,

(8) the FCC has not stated a sufficient governmental interest to support this intrusion upon political speech, and

(9) the FCC lacks authority to impose an AI disclaimer requirement, and to the extent the FCC seeks to impose such a requirement on candidate ads, it would violate the Communications Act’s prohibition on censoring or altering candidate ads.  For all of these reasons, the State Broadcasters Associations urged the FCC not to adopt the AI disclosure requirement and to terminate the proceeding.