Facebook to remove deepfake videos in run-up to 2020 U.S. election
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[January 07, 2020]
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc <FB.O> said
it will remove deepfakes and other manipulated videos from its platform
if they have been edited, but not content that is parody or satire, in a
move aimed at curbing misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential
election.
It would also remove misleading media if it was a result of technologies
like AI that "merges, replaces or superimposes content on to a video,
making it appear to be authentic", the California-based company said in
a blogpost dated Jan.6.
"This policy does not extend to content that is parody or satire, or
video that has been edited solely to omit or change the order of words,"
Facebook said.
The social media giant told Reuters that as part of its new policy it
will not remove a heavily edited video that attempted to make U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi seem incoherent by slurring her speech and making
it appear like she was repeatedly stumbling over her words.
"The doctored video of Speaker Pelosi does not meet the standards of
this policy and would not be removed. Only videos generated by
artificial intelligence to depict people saying fictional things will be
taken down," Facebook said in a statement.
"Once the video of Speaker Pelosi was rated by a third-party
fact-checker we reduced its distribution, and critically, people who saw
it, tried to share it or already had received warnings that it was
false".
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Stickers bearing the Facebook logo are pictured at Facebook Inc's F8
developers conference in San Jose, California, U.S., April 30, 2019.
REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Facebook has been criticized over its content policies by
politicians from across the spectrum. Democrats have blasted the
company for refusing to fact-check political advertisements, while
Republicans have accused it of discriminating against conservative
views, a charge that it has denied. In the run-up to the U.S.
presidential election in November 2020, social platforms have been
under pressure to tackle the threat of deepfakes, which use
artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic videos where a
person appears to say or do something they did not.
(Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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