Image Credit: ALYSSA FOOTE; OLIVIER DOULIERY/GETTY IMAGES
If ever there was a piece of tech intended for supervillains, this would be it.
You hear President Trump often refer to the media as “fake news;” news stories that are made up to sway someone’s opinion one way or the other. Sometimes the news we get is fabricated, while other times it is spot on. As a result of this, it is hard to distinguish between the two.
As the 2020 election campaign starts to kick off, people involved in the campaigns are becoming increasingly nervous of the “deepfake” videos that impact how people react to their candidate. Deepfake videos are manipulated using artificial intelligence that make it extremely difficult to tell that the video was altered.
Remember the video of Nancy Pelosi appearing intoxicated? Its realness had everyone believing that she was drunk. The dangers of this are quite real and quite scary.
Representative Yvette D. Clarke from New York is trying to do something about it. She introduced Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability, otherwise known as DEEPFAKES, in the House of Representatives. This legislation will force deceptive content-creators to label the videos with a disclaimer or watermark informing the viewers that the video has been altered.
If a video is altered and not disclosed, legal action can be taken against the person who altered the video. This legal action can also be used for identity theft statutes. If you try to impersonate someone else virtually, legal action can be taken against you.
This will allow us, as the voters, the opportunity to head to the polls with the ability to make informed decisions based on factual information found in videos. We deserve the right to not be tricked by false technology and candidates, themselves, deserve this same treatment. These intimidation tactics to make you believe one thing instead of another will come to an end (hopefully).
The truth deserves to be protected, and this is certainly a step in the right direction.
