Election disinformation, suspension of monetization, draft guidelines for SNS such as AI detection - Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

On the 23rd, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced draft guidelines outlining measures to be taken by SNS operators to reduce the negative impact on elections caused by false and misinformation online. Examples of recommended measures include suspending monetization of posts that undermine the integrity of elections, detecting images and videos generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and displaying warnings. A formal decision will be made as early as this year so that it can be applied to the unified local elections next April.

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The draft guidelines are based on the revised Public Offices Election Act and the revised Information Distribution Platform Countermeasures Act, which were enacted in July. Regarding the use of SNS during the election period, it has been pointed out that the system in which ``revenues'' can be earned based on the number of views and views has led to the spread of extremist content and false/misinformation. The draft guidelines also proposed clarifying the posters who are monetizing their posts and stricter screening of monetization.

The revised Public Elections Act requires that AI images and videos be labeled as having been made using AI. The draft guidelines suggest that even if a poster violates the guidelines and neglects to display an image, the business operator will be able to detect the image and display a warning.

It also provides examples of how to deal with acts that spread information and distort the voting behavior of SNS users. The system detected a large number of unauthorized messages using a large number of devices and programs, and took measures such as suspending related accounts and deleting posts.

In order to improve the reliability of the information, they also requested that the country and region of the sender be specified. It also urged that messages from political parties and candidates themselves be prioritized.

The guidelines apply to 13 large-scale SNS operators, including Google, X (formerly Twitter), and LINE Yahoo. Out of consideration for freedom of expression, the actual response will be left to business operators, and no penalties will be imposed.