Last month, YouTube quietly updated its privacy policy to allow people to request the removal of AI-generated deepfake versions of themselves.
First reported by Tech Crunch, the new policy allows people to report videos that “used AI to alter or create synthetic content that looks or sounds like you.”
“If someone has used AI to alter or create synthetic content that looks or sounds like you, you can ask for it to be removed,” reads the updated privacy guidelines. “In order to qualify for removal, the content should depict a realistic altered or synthetic version of your likeness.”
YouTube will take in a variety of factors when evaluating an individual’s complaint, including whether the content is synthetic and whether or not the uploader disclosed the use of AI, and whether the complainant can be uniquely identified and is realistic.
Another factor YouTube will consider is whether the AI content is an obvious parody or satire, or whether it contains some other public interest value.
If the video is of a public figure or celebrity, YouTube will investigate if that person is seen engaging in criminal behavior, violence, or falsely endorsing a product or political candidate. Tech Crunch notes that this is particularly pertinent during an election year when an AI-generated endorsement could have a real effect at the ballot box.
If and when YouTube receives such a complaint, it will pass it on to the uploader who will have 48 hours to act on it. If the time passes and the video is still live, YouTube will initiate a review.
If found guilty, YouTube will completely remove the video from the site and any other personal information. The uploader could blur out the faces in the video but can’t just make a video private to make the complaint go away.
This new clause in YouTube’s privacy policy was not trumpeted by YouTube but comes off the back of March’s announcement which said creators must label AI-generated content that people could mistake for being real.
YouTube stresses that privacy complaints are separate from Community Guidelines which offenders of will receive strikes on their account.
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