Hefty fine

Fake Biden call costs company dearly

The alleged Joe Biden had called on people in the US state of New Hampshire not to vote in his Democratic Party's primary election.(Bild: AP)

The transmission of a fake election campaign call with the voice of US President Joe Biden will cost an American telecommunications company dearly. Following an agreement with the regulatory authority FCC, Lingo Telecom will pay a fine of one million US dollars (around 900,000 euros).

In the automated call with a deceptively real-sounding voice of Biden, voters in the state of New Hampshire were called in January not to participate in the primary election of his Democratic Party. Biden's voice was generated using software based on artificial intelligence. The sender information on the call was also falsified so that it appeared to come from a Democratic political committee.

Getting off lightly
In May, the FCC proposed a fine of six million dollars for the originator of the call, a political consultant. The automated call with Biden's fake voice raised new concerns in the US that AI could be misused even more frequently before the presidential election in November. The FCC subsequently strengthened the legal framework for taking action against such AI fakes.

In addition to the fine, the telecoms service provider has now committed to an unprecedented program to check the trustworthiness of customers who use its networks to transmit data.