The case for election advertising regulation has now been raised in the House of Lords during the Second Reading of the Representation of the People Bill.
Peers highlighted the recommendations Reform Political Advertising has been campaigning for: rules around factual claims in election advertising, greater transparency over paid political advertising, and stronger protections against deceptive uses of artificial intelligence and deepfakes.
The debate is significant because these issues are now being raised as the Bill begins its passage through the Lords, providing a further opportunity to strengthen the legislation.
We’ve included four contributions below – from Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Lord Russell of Liverpool, Baroness May of Maidenhead and the Bishop of Hereford – which demonstrate the growing concern in Parliament about misinformation, disinformation and the impact of AI on elections.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: factual accuracy in election advertising
Baroness Royall highlighted the gap in the current regulatory system for factual claims made in election advertising.
She pointed to the fact that non-broadcast political advertising does not fall under the normal Advertising Standards Authority rules that apply to commercial advertising, and made the case for an election advertising code of practice.
Her contribution reflects one of our central recommendations: that factual claims in paid election advertising should be subject to basic standards of accuracy, without restricting political opinion, argument or debate.
Lord Russell of Liverpool: transparency and tackling disinformation
Lord Russell made the case for a stronger framework to tackle misinformation and disinformation in election advertising.
He called for a clear and enforceable code of practice and for a public repository of paid-for digital political advertising. An independent and searchable database would allow voters, journalists and researchers to see the advertising being used during an election – including material that might otherwise only be visible to narrowly targeted groups of voters.
This is particularly important in an era of microtargeting and so-called “dark advertising”, where different voters can be shown different election messages without wider public scrutiny.
Baroness May of Maidenhead: AI and false candidate content
Former Prime Minister Baroness May raised the threat posed by rapidly developing artificial intelligence to the integrity of election campaigning.
She highlighted the ability of AI-generated material to put words into the mouths of candidates and others involved in elections – creating material which appears authentic but depicts them saying things they never actually said.
She also made the important point that technology is developing extremely quickly and that election law will need to keep pace. The ability to convincingly impersonate candidates represents a fundamentally new challenge for election regulation and is why we are campaigning for specific safeguards against deceptive AI-generated candidate content.
Bishop of Hereford: deepfakes and candidate impersonation
The Bishop of Hereford made a particularly clear case for action against deceptive deepfakes.
He argued that the law should address AI-generated content which falsely purports to be a political candidate, or falsely claims to speak on their behalf, where the intention is to deceive voters.
He also highlighted the importance of transparency so that voters can know when political material has been generated or materially altered using artificial intelligence.
Our proposal is that deliberately deceptive digital impersonation of candidates should be prohibited, while ensuring appropriate protections remain for satire, parody and legitimate political expression.
The case for reform is building in the Lords
These contributions are an important next step.
During the Commons stages of the Representation of the People Bill, MPs from across Parliament raised many of the same issues. The debate has now moved to the Lords, where peers are again highlighting the gaps in the way election advertising and emerging technology are regulated.
Our core recommendations remain:
- Introduce proportionate regulation of factual claims in election advertising.
- Establish an independent, searchable repository of election advertising to bring transparency to online and targeted campaigning.
- Prevent deceptive AI-generated content from impersonating candidates or falsely speaking on their behalf, while protecting satire and legitimate political expression.
- Strengthen transparency requirements so voters can clearly identify who is behind election material.
Two of these areas, the regulation of factual claims in election advertising and an independent repository of election ads, build on recommendations made unanimously by the House of Lords Democracy and Digital Technologies Committee in 2020.
Artificial intelligence has developed dramatically since then. The ability to create convincing synthetic video and audio means the need to protect voters against deceptive candidate impersonation has become increasingly urgent.
We will continue making the case as the Bill progresses through the House of Lords.
