OPINION
For the benefit of New Jersey citizens, I wish to describe how example of malicious impersonation for nefarious political purposes could have become catastrophic, how the malicious actions taken by certain political operatives can be exported on a large scale to the detriment of all and call for the New Jersey Legislature to consider acting on what I believe to be a crime that has occurred against the Republican committee of Sussex County.
Though the act I believe to be a crime has occurred on a small scale, should AI platforms had been used, it could have been consequential to the free speech rights of our citizens on a much larger scale because it speaks for a multitude that has not given their consent to that speech in the form of election, petition or contractual consent, all done under the auspices of maliciousness. This is in some ways criminal and should be in all ways criminal.
Imagine your spouse gets an email with a video of you committing adultery- utterly realistic, made by AI? Imagine an enemy terrorizing your elderly relatives with voice calls of their dead child? Imagine you are arrested for a crime that AI makes it seem you committed?
Currently, I am suing the operators of a Facebook page that I, my attorney, and my committee colleagues believe impersonates our logo, our identity, and uses it as a platform to attack our committee and the office holders of our county and legislative district, all of whom have won election in landslides. Though these imposters have recently back-tracked, they impersonated our committee from about March to about a few weeks ago, (and still do in some ways) and for this, they are answering in court-civilly. I argue and believe that they’ve used this platform to make libel and defamation, as they attacked our roles at our places of work, causing us damage to reputation and our ability to earn livings effectively. This Facebook page “The Sussex GOP” pretends to be the Sussex Republican Committee, used to be the official page, was retained by a disgruntled consultant who was no longer with the Party, and defames me and others daily, and as we know, defamation is part and parcel of modern politics. Yet, they do this creating the impression they are in fact the Sussex GOP, meaning the Sussex Republican Committee, and there is strong evidence that points to this. After all, they are led by a colossally toxic failure of a political consultant who hails from New Hope, Pennsylvania, and perennially failing political opportunists who lose elections in landslides.
So, social media libel is all they have. Yet, if they can impersonate an organization legally, whose to say anyone can’t establish a Facebook page and do likewise to another? Should they have had an AI platform, their activities would have been instrumentally more damaging. The malice they’ve shown, targeting personal work life, family life, and attacking a my combat service saying I’m deranged with PTSD, these are all utterly malicious. These attacks were shown to me, in mediation, to belong to a serving county commissioner in Sussex County, Bill Hayden, who has been “outed” for falsely claiming to have been a Navy SEAL and made claims of military experience, and is now, in my understanding, in jeopardy for the crime of fraud claiming he was a veteran to benefit financially. The perpetrators of these bad actions also promoted a faux scandal, to attack political opponents with, verbally telling people lies while officially “asking questions.” Much of this can be read on “Jersey Conservative” or “Sussex Watchdog” where under a fake name, Rubashov, many aspersions are cast alleging criminality, that use scores of random and myopic OPRA requests made by the disgruntled consultant who seeks revenge against his former employers. In unison, his acolyte, the operator of the “Sussex GOP” page, turned over rights to Commissioner Hayden, she said, and showed me copies of posts where she, as an administrator, could see, and I read, Hayden’s name on them. In these posts Hayden proceeded to publicly post that I was a criminal, tagging my place of work. This was in addition to him being recorded on tape verbally accusing me falsely of capital crimes, along with others, all while he pretended to be our friend and ally. This is an example of how evil people can be. Imagine had these people had use of sophisticated AI? When Hayden disgraced himself, my committee and I put our names to calling him out. He hides behind a page, and so do his confederates, but to allege criminality where there is none, to commit real defamation, and we will be proving this in court.
First, New Jersey law states in Title 2C 21-17 of the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice that a person is guilty of a crime if:
- Impersonates another or uses a false identity and does act in such an assumed character or false identity for the purpose of obtaining a benefit for himself or to injure or defraud another
- Pretends to be a representative of some person or organization and does act in such a pretended capacity for the purpose of obtaining a benefit for himself or to injure or defraud another
I make no secret of my passionate support for conservatism and the current Republican platform, and my belief in it as the essence of America’s past and future. Yet, like nuclear warheads, AI can be destructive to both sides of the American political spectrum, to equal measure. The New Jersey legislature should take the lead on mitigating these risks, by criminalizing the misuse of AI or social media, in situations where identities are mis-portrayed and false flag operations occur. Fraudulent tactics like these don’t harm the political parties nearly as much as they do the people, whose very rights are trampled by this epic fraud. Simultaneously, criminal aspersions used in conjunction with fraud, should be moved from civil to criminal as well.
Using “Free Speech” or “I’m a journalist” does not apply in this case, I argue, because the intent to defraud, to injure, is one of personal malice, and the Supreme court has ruled that when someone acts with intent to cause harm, even with a public figure, then that is unconstitutional. A good case to review in support of this is New York Times vs Sullivan 1964, where SCOTUS ruled: “…it would seem to qualify for the constitutional protection, unless it forfeits that protection by the falsity of some of its factual statements and by its alleged defamation of respondent.”
This and subsequent cases of the latter 20th Century did not enjoy the terror of misused Artificial Intelligence, now that “AI” is available that can create plausible depictions of fraudulent words, speech or behavior…the game has changed.
were the future of AI can become something that ruins our experiment in a constitutional republic, by its ability to infringe on first amendment rights and perpetuate fraud at epic scales.
Spoofing, and other forms of simulation, can create fake images, voices, mimic phone numbers and email addresses, and can fake websites, social media pages and even voice messages to incredible damage. For this, AI is and will be weaponized, but not as a self defense weapon, and not as a weapon to defend rights, but only as a tool to cause a radioactive level harm to all who are near it. These apps, tools and technologies should not be legal unless used for what we call “the common good” and that should be something we determine as a society. The wrong answer is, for New Jersey, is that we sit back and allow malignant actors, like Hayden, the Pennsylvania political consultant, and another (who I believe to be a man known to me, who is a divorce attorney in Fort Lee, but lives in Sparta) to get their hands on AI so they can continue to defraud, defame and deceive the population to accomplish their political agenda- which is actually a pretty bad one, and not inline with either side of the political spectrum. Now is the time for the New Jersey Legislature to act.
I call on our legislators to do the following:
- Expand title 2C 21-17 to criminalize the use of pseudonyms for political use if any criminal or personal allegation is made. American tradition has its own founding fathers using pseudonyms for expressing political thought, and that is fine. To use a pseudonym to allege crime, personal or health issues against any citizen, public or private, should be criminal. “Rubashov” of New Jersey Conservative and Sussex Watchdog, and the FB Page “Sussex GOP” do this habitually. They use myopic facts, supplemented by outrageous narratives, to create a climate of utter toxicity.
- Require all social media users to sign or identify themselves when making speech directed at a person.
I believe that should malicious actors learn to manipulate AI, it would create incredible disturbances to the public peace and destroy good people’s lives and families. I’ve no doubt, based on my previous relationship with Bill Hayden, that he would use AI to destroy lives and people’s families. I’ve no doubt, based on my personal experience with the New Hope Consultant who hides behind the name “Rubashov” that he would use AI to create complete fallacies and then just gleefully enjoy the mayhem. I’ve no doubt that the Sparta divorce lawyer, based on my experience with him, would no doubt enable and manage these efforts.
Let’s get the “nuclear warhead” of AI out of the hands of these human forms of Iran and North Korea before they become a public menace. Let’s get on the road to a better, more dignified political climate, where borderline and actual criminals can’t masquerade as citizens.
Joseph Labarbera is the Sussex County Republican Chairman.