Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to update the law with safeguards to prevent the creation and distribution online of manipulated and faked images.

The Government recognises the challenges that digitally manipulated media and faked images can pose and the Government’s legislative response has been designed to tackle the most egregious forms of this content.

This content will fall in scope of the Online Safety Act where it constitutes illegal content, including illegal misinformation or disinformation, or content which is harmful to children. Where companies become aware of illegal content in scope of the Act, they will need to take steps to remove it. For example, the False Communications Offence, which commenced on 31 January 2024, captures manipulated and faked images where the sender of such content is aware it is untrue and intends to cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm to the recipient. The Foreign Interference Offence has also been added as a priority offence in the Act, forcing companies to remove a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation, including manipulated media and faked images.

The Online Safety Act has also introduced new intimate image abuse offences, which commenced on 31 January. These now mean it is illegal to share without consent or threaten to share intimate images, including AI created or manipulated intimate images.