90 Days Until National Assembly Elections: Election Campaigns Using Deepfake Restricted

The National Election Commission announced that it will strengthen election law guidance and crackdown on restricted and prohibited activities starting from January 11 (Thursday), which is 90 days before the election date for the 22nd National Assembly election.

The Public Official Election Act restricts or prohibits election-related activities depending on the period in order to guarantee substantive equality of opportunity among candidates and prevent socioeconomic losses due to unfair and overheated competition in elections.

Article 82-8 (Regulation of election campaigns using artificial intelligence-based Deepfake videos, etc.)

According to the Public Official Election Act, as amended on December 28, 2023, no one may produce, edit, distribute, screen, or post deepfake videos for election campaigning purposes from 90 days before the election day to the election day. However, according to the supplementary provisions, the prohibition will be effective on January 29 (Monday), one month after the promulgation. The National Election Commission are expanding and operating a special response team for false information and slander to proactively respond to the revision of the Public Official Election Act and the changed election environment. The National Election Commission is organizing and operating the AI identification team early on Thursday, January 11, and the city and provincial election commissions is expanding the number of AI monitoring agents by 2 to 3 people.

Article 111 (Restrictions on holding legislative information meetings, etc.)

Members of the National Assembly or local councils may not report legislative activities to their constituents through rallies such as briefing sessions, reports, or congratulatory speeches or greetings, regardless of official actions or other purposes, from 90 days before the election date to the election day.

However, members of the National Assembly, etc. may transmit the contents of legislative activities using SNS such as text messages and KakaoTalk without the contents leading to election campaigns at all times, and may always post legislative information reports on their own Internet homepage or the homepage of an Internet media company or political party. there is.

Even if the legislative report is sent by mail 90 days before the election day, if the legislative report arrives to a constituent during the ban on reporting legislative activities, caution is required as illegality is judged based on the time of arrival.

Article 103 (Prohibition of holding publication celebrations)

No one may have a publication ceremony for the author of a book related to a candidate from 90 days before election day to election day. It is prohibited even if written by someone else.

Article 93 (Prohibition of advertisements showing the names of political parties and candidates)

From 90 days before the election day to the election day, no one may advertise writings, entertainment, plays, movies, photographs, or other items representing the name of a political party or candidate (including persons wishing to become a candidate) in a manner not specified in the Public Official Election Act. Candidates cannot appear in advertisements in broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, or other places. However, a business whose representative is a person seeking to become a candidate may conduct regular commercial advertisements unrelated to the election.

Article 53 (Restrictions on candidacy for public officials, etc.)

For public officials, full-time executives of the government-invested organization, local/public corporations, and journalists stipulated in the Public Official Election Management Rules to run for office in this National Assembly election, they must resign their current position by January 11 (Thursday) for constituency members, which is 90 days before the election day; for proportional representative members, by March 11th (Monday), the 30 days before the election day. However, if a member of the National Assembly runs for the position, he or she does not have to resign.

If a person who is subject to restrictions on candidacy, such as a public official, resigns, he or she shall be deemed to have resigned from his or her position when the resignation is received by the head of the affiliated commission or the affiliated commission.

Article 60 (Resignation of a person wishing to become an election official)

Reserve force company commander level or higher officers, residents' self-governance committee members, or heads of tong/ri/ban, etc. shall resign his or her current position by January 11 (Thursday), which is 90 days before the election day.

The National Election Commission urged political parties, candidates, and voters to be careful because the Public Official Election Act stipulates different restrictions and prohibitions depending on the period. For election inquiries, voters can receive guidance through election hotline 1390 or the Election Regulations Portal (http://law.nec.go.kr) anywhere in the country.