FCC fines telecom $1 million over fake AI Biden robocalls

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined Lingo Telecom $1 million over January's fake Joe Biden AI robocalls, which used deepfake audio of the president's voice to spread election disinformation in New Hampshire. The telecommunications company initially faced a penalty of $2 million, however this week's settlement agreement cut that figure in half.

While Lingo Telecom wasn't directly involved in creating the Biden AI robocalls, it still fell afoul of the FCC for transmitting the calls and failing to protect against Caller ID spoofing. The robocalls used Caller ID spoofing to deceptively present itself as originating from a phone number belonging to a former New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair.

As detailed in the FCC's Consent Decree, Lingo Telecom had incorrectly certified that they had "a direct authenticated relationship" and could confirm the caller's identity in almost 4,000 of the Biden AI robocalls. This was due to an internal policy which allowed Lingo Telecom to simply rely on Life Corporation's certification regarding the identities of its customers, taking the latter at its word when it claimed to have verified that the phone numbers being used were associated with said individuals.

"Lingo Telecom took no additional steps… to independently ascertain whether the customers of Life Corporation could legitimately use the telephone number that appeared as the calling party for the New Hampshire presidential primary calls," read the Consent Decree.

In addition to the $1 million civil penalty, Lingo Telecom has also agreed to a compliance plan ensuring it abides by the FCC's STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication rules. These rules require Lingo Telecom to be more thorough when verifying information provided by its customers, aiming to minimise the risk of similar incidents happening again.

"[T]he potential combination of the misuse of generative AI voice-cloning technology and caller ID spoofing over the U.S. communications network presents a significant threat," said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal in a statement. "This settlement sends a strong message that communications service providers are the first line of defense against these threats and will be held accountable to ensure they do their part to protect the American public."

Who was behind the deepfake Biden AI robocalls?

Thousands of people across New Hampshire answered their phones in January to hear a voice which sounded remarkably like President Biden. These AI voice-generated robocalls explicitly discouraged people from voting in the then-upcoming primary election, falsely claiming that people needed to "save" their votes to be used in November's general election.

Of course, this was a blatant lie. Voters are able to cast a ballot in both primary and general elections, and don't have to save them up for strategic use in one or the other.

New Hampshire's Department of Justice subsequently traced the illegal calls to Texas company Life Corporation, which had been hired to create the Biden AI robocalls by political consultant Steve Kramer. Kramer was working for Democratic congressman Dean Phillips' presidential campaign, though he stated that he came up with the AI robocall idea himself. The deepfake audio itself was created by magician Paul Carpenter, who was commissioned by Kramer and has stated he didn't know how the clip would be used. Phillips also distanced himself from the stunt, his campaign stating that Kramer acted of his own volition.

Kramer is now facing numerous criminal charges and a $6 million fine.