Papua New Guinea moves to criminalize deepfakes and voice cloning

Papua New Guinea’s ICT ministry has begun drafting laws to criminalize AI deepfakes, voice cloning and digital impersonation, with Acting Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr. pledging that “no Papua New Guinean should have their face, voice or identity stolen and weaponized.” The proposed offenses span fraudulent voice cloning, AI-generated sexual material, scams and identity theft — and, notably, would extend liability beyond whoever creates the content. The push arrives alongside a Queensland University of Technology partnership and deeper integration of PNG’s SevisPass national digital ID (via Biometric Update).

Voice cloning named as a distinct criminal offense is the part to flag. As synthetic-voice fraud scales, the legal question shifts from “was this a scam” to “was this voice even real,” and a small state writing impersonation-by-AI into statute is a marker of how fast that’s becoming mainstream policy. The pairing with a national digital-ID rollout is the recurring shape: identity infrastructure and identity-abuse law arriving in the same breath.

Watch the “accountability beyond the creator” clause — tool and platform liability for cloning is the contested frontier everywhere, and PNG is staking a position early.