Lawmakers sound alarm on fake videos
Push in US Senate to clamp down on doctored clips highlights real risk of fake news running riot
Two lawmakers are warning that the country is woefully unprepared for the rise of deepfakes, alarmingly realistic videos that appear to show people doing things they didn’t do.
Senators Mark R. Warner and Marco Rubio are exploring ways to curb the trend of doctored videos before it becomes too widespread, saying they could wreak havoc if used in disinformation campaigns such as the one conducted by the Russian government in 2016. In a wide-ranging technology policy paper on Monday, Warner floated the idea of holding social media platforms liable for failure to take down deepfakes. And Rubio in a recent speech called on government and political leaders to treat them as a national security threat.
The attention from lawmakers means deepfakes are no longer a fringe issue but a more serious front in the fight against fake news, and tech companies may soon feel pressure to get ahead of them. But any policy solution would have to balance the harm to potential victims against free-speech rights for people who use deepfakes for creative or satirical purposes.
Warner said the easily accessible technology used to make the videos could “usher in an unprecedented wave of false and defamatory content”.
In his policy paper, he wrote, “Just as we’re trying to sort through the disinformation playbook used in the 2016 election and as we prepare for additional attacks in 2018, a new set of tools is being developed that are poised to exacerbate these problems”.
Lawmakers caution that it’s a tool that could send the fake news crisis into overdrive.
“This all sounds fantastic, it all sounds exaggerated, it all sounds hyperbolic. But the capability to do all of this is
But the capability to do all of this is real and exists now, the willingness exists now, all that’s missing is the execution. And we are not ready for it.” Marco Rubio | Republican senator from Florida
real and exists now, the willingness exists now, all that’s missing is the execution. And we are not ready for it,” Rubio said in a speech last month at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.
To chip away at the problem, Warner has proposed is amending the Communications Decency Act to hold social media platforms liable under state law if they don’t take down deepfakes and other manipulated content shown in court to be defamatory.
Likely challenges
Legislation to do this would almost certainly run into opposition from civil liberties groups.
Deepfakes started cropping up last year on Reddit after a user superimposed the faces of Gal Gadot, Taylor Swift and other celebrities onto the faces of actors in pornographic videos. They’ve also been used to lampoon President Donald Trump by pasting his face over Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The comedian Jordan Peele used the technology to graft President Barack Obama’s face over his own in a widely-circulated public service announcement warning of the dangers of deepfakes.
“It’s only a matter of time until ‘deepfake’ videos become a household term,” Rubio said in an email. He hasn’t offered any concrete policy proposals yet. For now, he says he’s simply trying to sound the alarm.