The FCC worked with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to identify Lingo as the company that facilitated these robocalls ahead of a presidential primary last month. The robocalls, made to sound like President Biden, advised Democrats to refrain from participating in the upcoming primary. Lingo has been accused of violating voter suppression laws by allowing these deepfake calls to originate on its network. The FCC is also investigating whether ElevenLabs software was used to create the deepfakes.
Key takeaways:
- The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has identified Lingo Telecom as the company that transmitted deepfake robocalls impersonating President Biden and has issued a cease and desist letter to the company.
- The FCC worked with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to identify Lingo as the company that facilitated deepfake robocalls ahead of a presidential primary last month, which is considered a violation of voter suppression laws.
- An entity named “Life Corp” was identified as the group that created the calls, with an individual named Walter Monk named as the person behind Life Corp’s robocalls. Lingo Telecom has since suspended services to Life Corp.
- The FCC is pushing to outlaw AI-generated robocalls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, stating that this action would help state Attorneys General prosecute the originators of deepfake robocalls.