Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Friday 10 January 2020

Facebook bans deepfakes in fight against online manipulation

LONDON (AP) — Facebook the forgeries will get better
says it is banning "deep- alongside the detection."
fake" videos, the false but Facebook said any videos,
realistic clips created with deepfake or not, will also
artificial intelligence and be removed if they violate
sophisticated tools, as it existing standards for nu-
steps up efforts to fight dity, graphic violence or
online manipulation. But hate speech. Those that
the policy leaves plenty of aren't removed can still be
loopholes. reviewed by independent
The social network said late third-party fact-checkers
Monday that it's beefing up and any deemed false will
its policies for removing vid- be flagged as such to peo-
eos edited or synthesized ple trying to share or view
in ways that aren't appar- them, which Bickert said
ent to the average person, was a better approach
and which could dupe than just taking them down.
someone into thinking the "If we simply removed
video's subject said some- all manipulated videos
thing he or she didn't actu- flagged by fact-checkers
ally say. as false, the videos would
Created by artificial intel- still be available elsewhere
ligence or machine learn- on the internet or social
ing, deepfakes combine or media ecosystem," Bickert
replace content to create said. "By leaving them up
images that can be almost This March 29, 2018 file photo, shows the logo for social media giant Facebook at the Nasdaq and labeling them as false,
impossible to tell are not MarketSite in New York's Times Square. we're providing people
authentic. Associated Press with important information
"While these videos are still and context."
rare on the internet, they and fending off allegations tion of the world. Facebook made the rounds last week Twitter, which has been an-
present a significant chal- of censorship. also left that clip online. The of Democratic presidential other hotbed for misinfor-
lenge for our industry and The U.S. tech company has company said at the time candidate Joe Biden that mation and altered videos,
society as their use increas- been grappling with how that neither video violated was selectively edited to said it's in the process of
es," Facebook's vice presi- to handle the rise of deep- its policies. make it appear he made creating a policy for "syn-
dent of global policy man- fakes after facing criticism The problem of altered vid- racist remarks. thetic and manipulated
agement, Monika Bickert, last year for refusing to re- eos is taking on increasing Gregory, whose group was media," which would in-
said in a blog post. move a doctored video urgency as experts and among those that gave clude deepfakes and other
However, she said the new of House Speaker Nancy lawmakers try to figure out feedback to Facebook for doctored videos. The com-
rules won't include parody Pelosi slurring her words, how to prevent deepfakes the policy, said that while pany has asked for public
or satire, or clips edited which was viewed more from being used to inter- the new rules look strong on feedback on the issue. The
just to change the order of than 3 million times. Experts fere with the U.S. presiden- paper, there are questions responses it's considering
words. The exceptions un- said the crudely edited clip tial election in November. around how effective the include putting a notice
derscore the balancing act was more of a "cheap fake" The new policy is a "strong company will be at uncov- next to tweets that include
Facebook and other social than a deepfake. starting point," but doesn't ering synthetic videos. manipulated material. The
media services face in their Then, a pair of artists post- address broader problems, Facebook has built deep- tweets might also be re-
struggle to stop the spread ed fake footage of Face- said Sam Gregory, pro- fake-detecting algorithms moved if they're misleading
of online misinformation book CEO Mark Zucker- gram director at Witness, a and can also look at an ac- and could cause serious
and "fake news," while also berg showing him gloating nonprofit working on using count's behavior to get an harm to someone.
respecting free speech over his one-man domina- video technology for hu- idea of whether it's inten- YouTube, meanwhile, has a
man rights. tion is to spread disinforma- policy against "deceptive
"The reality is there aren't tion. That will give the com- practices" that the com-
that many political deep- pany an edge over users or pany says includes the "de-
fakes at the moment," he journalists in sniffing them ceptive uses of manipulat-
said. "They're mainly non- out, Gregory said. ed media" that may pose
consensual sexual images." But those algorithms serious risk of harm. For in-
The bigger problem is vid- haven't been used widely stance, the company re-
eos that are either shown for deepfakes in the wild. moved the Pelosi video last
without context or lightly "So it is an open question year. Google, which owns
edited, which some have how effective detection YouTube, is also research-
dubbed "shallow fakes," will be," he said. "This is an ing how to better detect
Gregory said. These include algorithmic kind of game deepfakes and other ma-
the Pelosi clip or one that of cat and mouse, where nipulated media.q