Based on the League of Women Voters This was reported by NBC Newsis suing its creators deep fake robot call Like President Joe Biden, who urged New Hampshire voters not to participate in the state’s presidential election in January.
The century-old non-partisan organization appealed claim In federal district court in Concord on Thursday, they said they received calls on behalf of three New Hampshire voters. The suit sought injunctions and tens of thousands of dollars in damages from Democratic operative Steve Cramer and the two telecom companies behind the call, Lingo Telecom and Life Corporation.
“These types of voter suppression tactics have no place in our democracy,” said Celina Stewart, general counsel for the League of Women Voters of the United States. “For more than 100 years, the League of Women Voters has worked to protect voters from these illegal crimes and will continue to fight against bad faith actors who seek to subvert our democratic system.”
Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for Kramer, said Friday that his client had not yet been notified of the lawsuit and declined to comment further.
Kramer he admitted It claims it ordered the calls to NBC News last month, but did so to raise awareness of AI deep fraud, not to trick people. His admission came after an acquaintance paid him to use artificial intelligence software to generate audio came forward to NBC News.
Kramer previously said he was subpoenaed by the Federal Communications Commission, which accelerated his plans. criminalizes AI-generated robocalls In response to Biden’s robocall.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is one of several law enforcement agencies that have previously investigated potential criminal violations is defined telemarketing firms Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom as rich distributors.
Paul Carpenter, a traveling magician hired by Kramer to create the audio, maintains his innocence, is following legal investigations and talking to law enforcement, said his attorney, Brandon Kizy.
Mark Herring, a former Virginia attorney general who is now in private practice at the law firm Akin Gump and one of the lawyers for the League of Women Voters, said he hopes the lawsuit will act as a “stakeholder” as AI technology becomes more widespread. .
“As a former state attorney general, I know the damage voter suppression can do to our democracy,” Herring said. he said in a statement Thursday. “We must hold accountable those who abuse new technology to undermine our freedom to vote.”
The lawsuit alleges that robocalls are protected by federal law designed to protect voters from intimidation, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and provisions of New Hampshire state law from misleading recipients about the origin of robocalls.
The calls were spoofed so they appeared on the caller ID as if they came from the wife of the former chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, who at the time ran a pro-Biden super PAC.
Kramer, a get-out-the-vote expert with more than 20 years of experience in local, state and federal campaigns, was then contracted by Biden’s main challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. has since withdrawn from the race.
Kramer and the Phillips campaign insist that neither campaign directed Kramer to make the calls. Cramer’s contract, worth more than $250,000, involved ballot access work in Pennsylvania and New York.
Courtney Hostetler, general counsel for Free Speech For People, another nonprofit that joined as general counsel, said that while this is the first lawsuit of its kind, it likely won’t be the last.
“As technology improves, it will become harder to identify fraudulent calls from accurate calls,” he said.
The agency said the Federal Trade Commission received more than 175,000 complaints about scam calls during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2023. he said.