Fake Biden Robocalls Cost Wireless Provider $1 Million in FCC Penalties

The wireless provider that allowed deepfake robocalls of President Joe Biden to be transmitted to potential voters in New Hampshire during that state’s Democratic primaries has settled with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to an announcement from the commission Wednesday. Texas-based Lingo Telecom will pay a civil penalty of $1 million in the settlement over the voter suppression effort.

The controversy over fake Biden calls originally kicked off when a political consultant named Steve Kramer was hired by the presidential campaign of Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman from Minnesota who unsuccessfully tried to beat Biden for the nomination of his party. Kramer reportedly used AI cloning tech to make calls that sounded like President Biden, including a script that made it sound like he didn’t want his supporters to vote for him in the New Hampshire primary this past January.

Lingo Telecom didn’t create the robocalls but did allow them to be transmitted on its network, which the FCC says is in violation of the agency’s so-called “Know Your Customer” (KYC) and “Know Your Upstream Provider” (KYUP) rules. The Phillips campaign said Kramer was acting independently and that it didn’t know about or authorize the fake Biden calls. Kramer’s final penalty remains pending with the FCC, though he faces a proposed $6 million fine.

Incredibly, the fake robocalls were both a high-risk endeavor and showed very little reward for the candidate they were supposed to help. Phillips secured less than 20% of the vote in New Hampshire, despite campaigning hard there. Biden got almost 64% of the vote, with Marianne Williamson securing just 4%. But the robocalls and the FCC’s enforcement are likely to dissuade any other mainstream political campaigns in the future that may be thinking about similar tactics.

“Every one of us deserves to know that the voice on the line is exactly who they claim to be,” FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a press release. “If AI is being used, that should be made clear to any consumer, citizen, and voter who encounters it. The FCC will act when trust in our communications networks is on the line.”

The announcement from the FCC states that, aside from the financial penalty, Lingo has agreed to three changes to ensure it knows who’s using its wireless network:

• Applying an A-level attestation, which is the highest level of trust attributed to a phone number, only to a call where Lingo Telecom itself has provided the caller ID number to the party making the call
• Verifying the identity and line of business of each customer and upstream provider by obtaining independent corroborating records
• Transmitting traffic only from upstream providers that have robust robocall mitigation
  mechanisms in place and are responsive to traceback requests.

The FCC also framed the enforcement in terms of geopolitical adversaries of the U.S. overseas who may try to influence American elections. However, it should be noted this was exclusively a domestic operation spearheaded by an American hoping to boost Phillips.

“Whether at the hands of domestic operatives seeking political advantage or sophisticated foreign adversaries conducting malign influence or election interference activities, the 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,” FCC enforcement bureau chief Loyaan A. Egal said in a release. “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.”