Minister Weerwind (Legal Protection) is sending the House of Representatives the research report "Deepfakes: The Legal Challenges of a Synthetic Society. In doing so, he discusses the background to the research. He expects to send a cabinet response to the House in spring 2022.
I hereby offer to your Chamber the research report "Deepfakes: The Legal Challenges of a Synthetic Society" commissioned by the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) and conducted by the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (Tilt).
In the government's Vision of Horizontal Privacy, the government has stated that it is desirable to consider the risks of new technological developments for the privacy of citizens at an earlier stage. 1) So-called 'deepfake technology', which makes it possible to generate images, sound or other material that is barely distinguishable from the real thing, is developing rapidly and is becoming accessible to more and more people. This may be in violation of privacy and data protection law, as well as otherwise unlawful or even punishable. To gain a better understanding of this, the government has commissioned research into the risks of this technology, the legal framework surrounding it, and the measures that can be taken to limit these risks.
The research offered focuses primarily on the use of deepfakes in horizontal relationships, that is, between citizens. The research describes the emergence of deepfake technologies, analyzes the extent to which current law is adequate to address their adverse effects, and makes recommendations.
I expect to send your Chamber a Cabinet response to this study in the spring of 2022, including an appreciation of the study's recommendations. I then also expect to be able to provide a Cabinet response to the study 'Regulation of Immersive Technology' that was conducted in response to the motion of the members Van der Staaij and Van der Graaf and which I have already presented to your Chamber on July 29, 2021. 2) 3)
Law Minister,
F.M. Weerwind
Find here the report 'Deepfakes: The legal challenges of a synthetic society'.
1) Parliamentary Papers II 2018/19, 34926, 8.
2) Parliamentary Papers II 2019/20, 35300 VI, 73.
3) Parliamentary Papers II 2020/21, 26643, 778
