Jan. 7 (UPI) — Facebook said Monday it will remove manipulated so-called deepfake videos and will accept help in hunting down such videos that seek to misinform the public.
The social media giant said its efforts will not affect videos manipulated for parody or satire, but those that purposely try to deceive the public and spread misinformation as the country moves toward the 2020 presidential election.
Facebook said it will target videos that have been “edited or synthesized — beyond adjustments for clarity or quality — in ways that aren’t apparent to an average person” to mislead, and those made by “artificial intelligence or machine learning that merges, replaces or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic.”
Monika Bickert, vice president of global policy management, said Facebook is working with a coalition of partners on technologies that would make it easier to identify deepfakes.
“Our enforcement strategy against misleading manipulated media also benefits from our efforts to root out the people behind these efforts,” Bickert said in the Facebook blog. “Just last month, we identified and removed a network using AI-generated photos to conceal their fake accounts. Our teams continue to proactively hunt for fake accounts and other coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said Facebook policy leaves a loophole that allows bad actors to continue to spread misinformation. There is concern that a now well-publicized doctored video of Pelosi that made her appeared to slur her words would likely not be affected by Facebook’s new policy.
“[Facebook] wants you to think the problem is video-editing technology but the real problem is Facebook’s refusal to stop the spread of disinformation,” Hammill said in a statement on Twitter.
