Content Manipulation

Category: When Analytics Works

Analytics is used to create misleading images and videos (a.k.a. Deepfakes, as described above). While human lies and deception are nothing new, arguably technologies like Deepfakes are "a looming challenge for privacy, democracy and national security." Chesney and Citron, (2018:1760) write "To take a prominent example, researchers at the University of Washington have created a neural network tool that alters videos so speakers say something different from what they originally said. They demonstrated the technology with a video of former President Barack Obama (for whom plentiful video footage was available to train the network) that made it appear that he said things that he had not." This creates doubt in the veracity of video evidence, and undermines the public's ability to rely on evidence.

What makes this type of technology a special case is that it is accessible to everyone. "The capacity to generate deep fakes is sure to diffuse rapidly no matter what efforts are made to safeguard it." Chesney and Citron, (2018:1763) Indeed, this diffusion has already begun. Moreover, content platforms have shown little willingness (or ability) to filter or block content that is not obviously illegal, which creates an audience for the misleading content. (Friedberg and Donovan, 2019). Despite some high-profile examples, such as the delisting of Alex Jones (Martineau, 2019), the longstanding problem of 'catfishing' - the use of fake profiles to swindle victims - is more illustrative of the potential scope of the problem (Couros and Hildebrandt. (2016).

There are numerous unethical uses of content manipulation, including exploitation, sabotage, harm to society, distortion of discourse, manipulation of elections, erosion of trust, exacerbation of divisions, undermining of public safety, and undermining journalism. (Chesney and Citron, 2018:1772-1786).

Examples and Articles

Science & Tech Spotlight: Deepfakes
"A deepfake is a video, photo, or audio recording that seems real but has been manipulated with artificial intelligence technologies. Anyone with basic computing skills and a home computer can create a deepfake." GAO, Feb 20, 2020. Direct Link

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