Facebook tightens policy against deepfakes ahead of election

A still from the fake Mark Zuckerberg clip posted to Facebook-owned Instgram. Photo / File

Facebook has shed more light on its efforts to eradicate doctored videos known as deepfakes, addressing an issue it has identified as an emergent threat ahead of the US election.

The operator of the world's largest social network pledged to remove content that has been "edited or synthesized" beyond adjustments for quality or clarity and is deemed likely to mislead viewers. The new rules won't apply to parody or satire, however. And videos that don't immediately meet Facebook's internal criteria for removal may still get fact-checked by more than 50 organisations the company has partnered with worldwide. Facebook will collaborate with Reuters to help newsrooms spot deepfakes through free online courses.

Facebook was widely criticised last year for not reacting faster to a widely seen video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that had been edited to make it look as though she was slurring her speech. It took Facebook more than a day to label the video as "fake," at which point its distribution was limited by Facebook's algorithms, but the company didn't remove it altogether. Dozens of Democrats signed a letter to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of not taking the situation seriously and saying that Facebook would be "grossly unprepared" for the 2020 elections.

"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," said Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, in a tweet Tuesday.

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‘Imagine this...’ (2019) This deepfake moving image work is from the ‘Big Dada’ series, part of the ‘Spectre’ project. Where big data, AI, dada, and conceptual art combine. .Artworks by Bill Posters & @danyelhau #spectreknows #privacy #democracy #surveillancecapitalism #dataism #deepfake #deepfakes #contemporaryartwork #digitalart #generativeart #newmediaart #codeart #markzuckerberg #artivism #contemporaryart

A post shared by Bill Posters (@bill_posters_uk) on Jun 7, 2019 at 7:15am PDT

The video wasn't technically a "deepfake," which would mean it was completely fabricated, but still introduced Facebook to the kinds of misinformation it will face heading into the 2020 election.

"We are strengthening our policy toward misleading manipulated videos that have been identified as deepfakes," Vice President of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert wrote in the blog post. "While these videos are still rare on the internet, they present a significant challenge for our industry and society as their use increases."

Other U.S. internet giants are also tightening up on content ahead of the elections. Alphabet Inc.'s Google is restricting misinformation and banning deepfakes in ads following criticism that companies ran ads from President Donald Trump that were intentionally misleading. Facebook's policy details were first reported by the Washington Post.

- Bloomberg