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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 11 February 2020
Video of Pelosi brings renewed attention to 'cheapfakes'

By RACHEL LERMAN ment at University of Texas.
AP Technology Writer That editing is "deliberately
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — designed to mislead and lie
The issue of misleading po- to the American people,"
litical messages on social Pelosi deputy chief of staff
media has arisen again, Drew Hammill tweeted on
as President Donald Trump Friday. He condemned
tweeted an edited video Facebook and Twitter for
showing House Speaker allowing the video to stay
Nancy Pelosi repeatedly up on the social media ser-
tearing up his State of the vices.
Union speech as he hon- Facebook spokesman
ored audience members Andy Stone replied to
and showed a military fam- Hammill on Twitter saying,
ily reuniting. "Sorry, are you suggest-
Pelosi did tear the pages ing the President didn't
of her copy of the speech make those remarks and
— but only after it was fin- the Speaker didn't rip the
ished, and not throughout speech?" In an interview
the address, as the video Sunday, Stone confirmed
depicts. that the video didn't violate
Pelosi's office asked Twit- the company's policy. In or-
ter and Facebook to take der to be taken down, the
down the video. Both ser- In this Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, file photo, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, tears her copy video would have had to
vices refused, saying it does of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address after he delivered it to a joint session of use more advanced tech-
Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington.
not violate their policies in- Associated Press nology and possibly try to
tended to prohibit inten- show Pelosi saying words
tionally deceptive videos. F. Kennedy's campaign de- rate with media outlets." book said. Facebook has she didn't say.
Researchers worry the buted an ad showing differ- The Pelosi team has pushed rules that prohibit so-called Twitter did not remove the
video's "selective editing" ent videos edited together back against doctored on- "deepfake" videos, which video either and pointed
could mislead people if of Richard Nixon sweating line content in the past. A the company says are both toward a blog post from
social media companies and looking weak. video released last year misleading and use artificial early February that says the
don't step in and properly So, to some extent, the vid- was slowed down to make intelligence technology to company plans to start la-
label or regulate similar eo of Pelosi, which appears it seem the speaker was make it seem like someone beling tweets that contain
videos. And with the pro- to be created by a group slurring her words. authentically "said words "synthetic and manipu-
liferation of smartphones affiliated with conservative WHAT POLICIES FROM SO- that they did not actually lated media." Labeling will
equipped with easy-to-use organization Turning Point CIAL MEDIA COMPANIES say." begin on March 5.
editing tools, the altered USA, is not novel. What's GOVERN THESE VIDEOS? Researchers say the Pe- WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?
videos are simple to make different now, said Clifford Facebook, Google and losi video is an example Not much. Social media
and could multiply as the Lampe, a professor of in- Twitter have all been em- of a "cheapfake" video, companies are broadly
election approaches. formation at the University phasizing their efforts to cut one that has been altered able to police the content
HOW LONG HAS DOCTORED of Michigan, is how widely down on disinformation on but not with sophisticat- on their own services as
CONTENT BEEN AN ISSUE? such content can spread in their services, hoping to ed AI like in a deepfake. they choose. A law, section
Political campaign ads and a matter of minutes. avoid some of the back- Cheapfakes are much 230 of the Communication
candidate messages show- "The difference now is that lash generated by ram- easier to create and are Decency Act, shields tech
ing opponents in a nega- the campaigns themselves, pant misinformation on so- more prevalent than deep- platforms from most law-
tive light have long been a the president of U.S. him- cial media during the 2016 fakes, which have yet to suits based on the content
staple of American politics. self, is able to disseminate election. really take off, said Samuel posted on their services,
Thomas Jefferson and John these pieces of media to But the video of Pelosi does Woolley, director of pro- leaving responsibility large-
Adams attacked each oth- the public," he said. "They not violate existing policies, paganda research at the ly in the companies' own
er in newspaper ads. John no longer have to collabo- both Twitter and Face- Center for Media Engage- hands. q
U.S. antitrust chief leaving Google probe because of lobbying

By MARCY GORDON and investigation into Google, Delrahim lobbied on
MICHAEL BALSAMO a person familiar with the Google's behalf in 2007
Associated Press matter said Tuesday. when the Mountain View,
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Word of Delrahim's recusal California-based search
Justice Department official came as other Justice De- giant faced antitrust scru-
leading the investigation partment officials met with tiny over its acquisition of
of big tech companies' state attorneys general to DoubleClick, a competitor
market dominance is step- discuss their parallel inves- in digital advertising.
ping aside from the depart- tigations of Google and The Justice Department's
ment's Google probe be- cooperation in enforcing ethics office apparently
cause of his previous lob- antitrust laws in the tech in- found no potential conflict
bying work for Google as a dustry. of interest when Delrahim
private attorney. The person wasn't autho- sought guidance as the
Assistant Attorney General rized to discuss the inves- investigation of Facebook,
In this Nov. 5, 2019 file photo, Assistant Attorney General Makan Makan Delrahim, the de- tigation and spoke to The Google, Amazon and Ap-
Delrahim, speaks at the Justice Department in Washington. partment's antitrust chief, Associated Press on the ple began last spring. q
Associated Press is recusing himself from the condition of anonymity.