Papua New Guinea Drafts Laws to Criminalize AI Deepfakes
The Spin
Pro-government narrative
Papua New Guinea is taking a necessary stand against AI deepfakes, and the rest of the world should take notes. Women, children and artists are being exploited through fabricated images, voice cloning and digital impersonation, and existing laws simply aren't cutting it. Criminalizing the harmful, non-consensual creation and sharing of manipulated content is the only serious response to a digital crisis that's already destroying lives and livelihoods.
Government-critical narrative
Deepfake laws sound protective until governments start using them to silence satire and political speech. The Babylon Bee took Hawaii to court over exactly this kind of overreach, and a federal judge agreed that mandatory disclaimers on parody kill the joke and violate the First Amendment. Broad anti-deepfake legislation consistently fails narrow-tailoring requirements because states can't resist writing laws vague enough to target any speech that makes politicians uncomfortable.