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Attorney general releases election AI robocall update

Eagle Times Staff
CONCORD, N.H. — Attorney General John M. Formella has announced that the Attorney General’s Office Election Law Unit has identified the source of the Sunday, Jan. 21, robocalls received by numerous New Hampshire residents, which played a message with what appeared to be an artificial intelligence-generated voice clone of President Biden’s voice, and which encouraged recipients not to vote in the Jan. 23 New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election.

The office immediately launched an investigation into these calls in coordination with state and federal partners, including the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which is a bipartisan task force made up of 50 state attorneys general, and the Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau. Through these collective efforts, the source of these calls has been identified as Texas-based Life Corporation and an individual named Walter Monk.

“Ensuring public confidence in the electoral process is vital. AI-generated recordings used to deceive voters have the potential to have devastating effects on the democratic election process,” said Attorney General Formella. “The partnership and fast action in this matter sends a clear message that law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and industry are staying vigilant and are working closely together to monitor and investigate any signs of AI being used maliciously to threaten our democratic process.”

The illegal robocalls in this case directly encouraged recipients not to participate in the New Hampshire Primary. The robocalls also illegally spoofed their caller ID information to appear to come from a number belonging to a former New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair. The message instructed recipients to call the number belonging to that person to be removed from future calls.

After identifying specific calls, the Election Law Unit requested ‘tracebacks’ via an entity known as Industry Traceback Group. These tracebacks identified the source of the calls to be Life Corporation and Walter Monk. The tracebacks further identified the originating voice service provider for many of these calls to be Texas-based Lingo Telecom. After Lingo Telecom was informed that these calls were being investigated, Lingo Telecom suspended services to Life Corporation.

The Election Law Unit has issued a cease-and-desist order to Life Corporation for violating RSA 659:40, III, which prohibits any person from engaging in voter suppression by knowingly attempting to prevent or deter another person from voting or registering to vote based on fraudulent, deceptive, misleading or spurious grounds or information.

Separately, the Election Law Unit has been working with the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force on this matter. Today the Task Force is issuing a letter to Life Corporation notifying the company that the Task Force received information identifying Life Corporation as the originating calling customer responsible for transmitting the suspected illegal robocall traffic. That notice will request that Life Corporation ensure that the company is following all applicable federal and state laws, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; the Truth in Caller ID Act; and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, Telemarking Sales Rule.

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