Last week I brought you the news of the FCC’s Declaratory Ruling that AI-generated voices including practices like voice cloning are enforceable under the TCPA as they are considered an “artificial” voice, which is already enforced by the TCPA, no surprises here but for those who were wondering, there ya have it!

If you recall in my blog covering the FCC’s ruling Commissioner Starks called on the agencies that have the authority to regulate the abuses of voice-cloning technology to step in. Yesterday the FTC came forward with a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to address exactly this! I am sure by now most of us have heard about the call that “President Biden” made to residents of New Hampshire, which was confusing, deceptive, and clearly fraudulent around an election in the state.

To back up a bit, the FTC had previously launched an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking in December of 2021 for Government and Business Impersonation Rules and after several rounds of public comment, notice of proposed rulemaking, and an informal hearing, yesterday the FTC voted to issue the final rule. Along with the vote to issue the final rule on Government and Business Impersonation, they also voted on issuing a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to extend the rule to impersonating an individual.

Chair Khan was quoted as saying “Fraudsters are using AI tools to impersonate individuals with eerie precision and at a much wider scale. With voice cloning and other AI-driven scams on the rise, protecting Americans from impersonator fraud is more critical than ever…Our proposed expansions to the final impersonation rule would do just that, strengthening the FTC’s toolkit to address AI-enabled scams impersonating individuals.”

Here is what you need to know:

The Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking

This will be published soon in the Federal Register, typically within 3 days, and will be seeking comments for 60days from publication date on the following:

• Revision of the title of the rule
• Add a prohibition on the impersonation of individuals
• Extend liability for violations of the Rule to parties who provide goods and services with knowledge or reason to know that those goods or services will be used in impersonations of the kind that are themselves unlawful under the Rule

The Final Rule

The final rule for Impersonation of Government and Businesses will be published in the Federal Register soon and will be effective 30 days after publication. The new rule will read as

461.2 Impersonation of Government Prohibited.

It is a violation of this part, and an unfair or deceptive act or practice to:

(a) materially and falsely pose as, directly or by implication, a government entity or officer thereof, in or affecting commerce as commerce is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 44); or

(b) materially misrepresent, directly or by implication, affiliation with, including endorsement or sponsorship by, a government entity or officer thereof, in or affecting commerce as commerce is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act

(15 U.S.C. 44).

461.3 Impersonation of Businesses Prohibited.

It is a violation of this part, and an unfair or deceptive act or practice to:

(a) materially and falsely pose as, directly or by implication, a business or officer thereof, in or affecting commerce as commerce is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 44); or

(b) materially misrepresent, directly or by implication, affiliation with, including endorsement or sponsorship by, a business or officer thereof, in or affecting commerce as commerce is defined in the Federal Trade Commission Act (15

U.S.C. 44).

You can check out the Final Rule HERE and read up on the supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking HERE.