Brazil court gives Bolsonaro 48 hours to respond on AI video use

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes is scrutinizing a controversial AI-generated video used during Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential convention. The defense for former President Jair Bolsonaro has been given a strict 48-hour deadline to clarify whether the former president authorized the video, which featured an AI simulation of him endorsing his son's candidacy.

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a eventual concordância de JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO com a divulgação de um vídeo produzido por IA, e amplamente divulgado nas redes sociais, contendo sua imagem e declarações ostensivamente político-eleitorais constituiria nova e grave transgressão à decisão judicial, poucos dias após ser sancionado, e passível de reversão da prisão domiciliar humanitária para o regime fechado.

Moraes's decision highlights the potential legal ramifications for Bolsonaro. The justice stated that if Bolsonaro approved the video's dissemination, it would constitute a "new and grave transgression" of a previous court order. Such a violation could result in the revocation of his humanitarian house arrest, potentially sending him to a closed prison regime.

Conversely, Moraes indicated that if Bolsonaro did not authorize the use of his image and voice, it would represent a disrespect to the court's order by both Flávio Bolsonaro and the Liberal Party (PL). This scenario could lead to charges of "deep fake" propaganda, which is explicitly prohibited by electoral law. The law forbids the creation or dissemination of synthetic content that artificially associates a person's image, voice, or statements with a candidate, party, or political cause without their explicit consent.

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se não houve autorização do custodiado JAIR MESSIAS BOLSONARO para utilização de sua imagem e voz para declarações político-eleitoral, além de constituir desrespeito à ordem judicial por FLÁVIO NANTES BOLSONARO e pelo Partido Liberal (PL), tal conduta poderá tipificar a denominada ‘deep fake’, prática expressamente vedada pela legislação eleitoral, haverá a caracterização de criação ou divulgação de conteúdo sintético destinado a associar artificialmente a imagem, a voz ou a manifestação de determinada pessoa a candidato, partido ou causa política, sem sua expressa autorização.

The video in question was played during the convention launching Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential bid. In it, the AI simulation of Jair Bolsonaro declared, "What you are seeing here is not me, this is a simulation of my image and my voice, made with artificial intelligence." The simulated Bolsonaro urged supporters to welcome his son with open arms. Moraes referenced a recent TSE ruling that reaffirmed the understanding that using the image of a politically prominent person without consent constitutes illicit propaganda and disinformation, especially when it could mislead voters.

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No vídeo, a simulação de Bolsonaro manifestava apoio à candidatura do filho e pedia que seus apoiadores recebessem Flávio de “braços abertos”.