Prohibit deepfakes in political campaign advertisements
Artificial intelligence
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
The biggest political advertising channels are run by companies. Platforms can refuse or label AI-fabricated political ads under their own advertising policies, which delivers most of the outcome online, while a law is needed to bind every advertiser and broadcaster. Investors already contest content governance at these firms: 15 shareholder proposals at Alphabet, Amazon and Meta in 2023 pressed for board oversight of harmful content and for algorithmic transparency. The decisive obstacle here is constitutional rather than corporate: federal courts, as in Kohls v. Bonta, have struck down state restrictions on election deepfakes under the First Amendment, which protects political speech most strongly of all.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Common Ground of the American People: Artificial Intelligence, Program for Public Consultation / Voice of the People, 2026 (study February 2024)
- Through a Series of Shareholder Proposals at Alphabet, Amazon and Meta, Investors Underscore Digital Rights Risks, Investor Alliance for Human Rights, 2023-01-31
- Digital Rights and AI Accountability, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, accessed 2026-08-28
- Kohls v. Bonta et al (litigation tracker), TechPolicy.Press, accessed 2026-08-28
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Organized and co-filed a multi-company campaign asking Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta to report annually on the risks of misinformation and disinformation produced and amplified by their generative AI products.
Lead filer of the generative AI misinformation reporting proposals at Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Co-filed the generative AI misinformation reporting proposals at Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft.
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is Common Ground of the American People's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.