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The Law Foundation, through its Information Law and Policy Project, is backing two projects that are looking at how to regulate harmful use of two fast-moving technology areas: video, and social media.

The Perception Inception project led by researchers Tom Barraclough and Curtis Barnes is looking into the ethical, legal and social questions that arise from image and sound synthesis manipulation. A report is to be produced in May regarding the developing law in this area to guide image creators, consumers and policy-makers in this fast-paced technology realm where fake audio-visual information can be increasingly used to manipulate people’s words and images.

Another project team led by researcher Marianne Elliott is looking into the opportunities, risks and threats posed to New Zealand’s democracy by digital technology. Media has long been regulated to ensure accuracy and fairness, but virtually unregulated social media platforms such as Facebook do not conform to the same standards. The speed, absence of regulation, and global nature of this issue are big challenges towards worldwide digital regulation. Their research findings will be published in April.

Read more about these projects in Law Foundation Director Lynda Hagen’s March article for LawTalk

The Law Foundation is providing funding of up to $56,660 for the Digital Technology and Democracy project, and $80,250 for the Perception Inception project