Opinions & Interviews

Belarus information minister wants legal response to deepfakes

Aleksandr Karlyukevich

MINSK,15 January (BelTA) –  Belarusian Information Minister Aleksandr Karlyukevich suggested introducing legislation related to fakes and deepfakes as he took part in another meeting of the Expert Community project “Deepfakes: New Challenge to Information Security” in the BelTA press center on 15 January.

The minister believes that this matter should be discussed with all the stakeholders in the parliament in the context of information security. Aleksandr Karlyukevich believes that it is necessary to assess the scale of this phenomenon and potential threats associated with it, and to introduce legislation regarding fakes and deepfakes. He called for immediate action to draft laws that will define these terms.

The consequences of fakes and deepfakes should be explained to the public. This will help a great number of people build a better understanding of these things. “If we do not get ready for it today, it might be too late tomorrow,” Aleksandr Karlyukevich said.

He noted that mass media and social networks come to play an increasingly bigger role today, therefore Belarus needs to think of the incredibly fast evolution of domestic mass media.

Senior research associate at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences Victor Naumov upheld the idea of introducing legislation related to identification of Internet users. “Identification is a kind of portal to this ‘wonderful’ world. A person should undergo partial or full identification. There are many various aspects about it. Accountability for identity theft should be introduced, too; identity theft might also be made a criminal offense,” he believes. In addition to that, the government, the public and technology producers should team up to combat fakes and deepfakes and sign a kind of public contract.  “Those who develop and introduce technology make up a separate force and it is necessary to negotiate things with them from the get-go,” Victor Naumov is convinced.

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