Facebook Finds Itself on Receiving End of Fake Video -- Update
12 Giugno 2019 - 6:44AM
Dow Jones News
By Sebastian Herrera
Facebook Inc. is getting its own taste of video fakery less than
two weeks after the company was slammed by U.S. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi for declining to take down a doctored video of her.
An altered video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has surfaced on
the company's Instagram app, where he appears to question his
company's data practices. In the video, created by Israeli
advertising agency Canny AI, Mr. Zuckerberg's mouth and voice are
manipulated to show the CEO briefly discussing Facebook's power in
a negative tone.
"Imagine this for a second: One man, with total control of
billions of people's stolen data, all their secrets, their lives,
their futures," the altered Zuckerberg says above a fake caption
that states Facebook is "increasing transparency on ads." The video
content appears to have been taken from a 2017 video of Mr.
Zuckerberg discussing Russian interference in the 2016
election.
The video, which was posted four days ago and seeks to mimic
Zuckerberg's voice, had amassed more than 6,000 views as of Tuesday
night. While only seconds long, the video could be one of many to
come that confront Facebook's content policy and revive questions
about how companies that control content online should handle
misinformation.
A spokeswoman for Instagram said the social network would "treat
this content the same way we treat all misinformation on Instagram.
If third-party fact-checkers mark it as false, we will filter it
from Instagram's recommendation surfaces."
Less than two weeks ago, Mrs. Pelosi criticized the social media
giant for not taking down a doctored video of her that was
published on Facebook. The video, which has amassed millions of
views online, is deliberately slowed down to make Mrs. Pelosi seem
as though she is slurring her words. YouTube, owned by Alphabet
Inc.'s Google, removed the altered video from its platform.
At the time, Facebook said it stood by its decision not to
delete the video, with global policy chief Monika Bickert telling
CNN that the company had "decelerated" the video's promotion
online. She said Facebook would leave it up to the people to "make
their own informed choice as what to believe."
Mrs. Pelosi, however, likened the social-media company's
handling of the altered video to its failure to prevent Russia's
interference in the 2016 elections.
"We have said all along, 'Poor Facebook, they were unwittingly
exploited by the Russians," she said then. "I think they have
proven -- by not taking down something they know is false -- that
they were willing enablers of the Russian interference in our
election."
The altered video of Mr. Zuckerberg is one of several made by
Canny AI. Other altered videos include those of President Trump and
reality-TV star Kim Kardashian West. The website Vice earlier
spotted the altered video of Mr. Zuckerberg.
The videos deploy a technology known as "deepfakes," which use
machine-learning software to re-engineer people's mouths and voices
in videos. Facebook, YouTube and other purveyors of user content
are facing a constant barrage of digital fakery that is undermining
the trust in their platforms.
Britt Paris, an artificial-intelligence researcher at Data &
Society Research Institute, said ad agencies gaining access to
deepfake technology demonstrate how pervasive the videos are
becoming.
"We're going to have to confront the reality that you can create
a deepfake video for a number of reasons," said Mary Anne Franks, a
University of Miami School of Law professor who specializes in
studying the technology. "It might be to defame someone or
manipulate an election, but it also might be to sell a product or
to make a statement. Whatever regulation we can come up with has to
capture the wide-ranging spectrum of behaviors and
motivations."
Write to Sebastian Herrera at Sebastian.Herrera @wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 12, 2019 00:29 ET (04:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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