Warning! You’ve Been Duped: Unchecked Social Media Usage Amplifies the Threat of Deepfakes
We’re living in a world where distinguishing between fact and fiction can be challenging. Deepfakes, a term coined by combining “deep learning” and “fake”, are essentially digitally altered videos or images that make it near impossible to tell what’s true and what’s fake. According to a PYMNTS report, deepfakes are on the rise, and if not checked, could amplify deception and misinformation on social media platforms.
Understanding Deepfakes and Their Implications
Deepfakes are created using AI and machine learning techniques, making realistic falsified footage that usually goes viral, causing confusion and mistrust around the world. It’s been said that deepfakes are manipulation on steroids, with AI’s intelligent design and usage of statistics resulting in deceptive digital products that are hard to distinguish from the original. The consequences of such videos are dire, including identity theft, reputational damage, manipulation of elections, and even deepening social unrest.
The Current State of Social Media and Deepfake Prevention
The explosion of deepfake technology has necessitated the implementation of detection methods, policies, and technologies by social media platforms to identify and eliminate such videos. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are participating in the war on deepfakes by being proactive in monitoring and analyzing the content posted. The detection methods deployed include tamper-proof watermarks, altered audio detection, reverse image searches, and machine analysis.
The Potential Dangers of Ignoring Deepfakes on Social Media
Utilizing deepfakes for manipulation is dangerous because deception and its negative impacts are magnified in our society, leading to a vast loss of public trust in information and their sources. Deepfakes have the potential to diminish democratic processes, including political manipulation and impact public trust to amusingly cruel levels. Unchecked deepfakes can devastate political systems, deceive citizens, and ultimately damage a country’s identity.
Conclusion
Granted, deepfake technology could bring a lot of laughter and humor in the right hands. However, unchecked usage of deepfakes in our world of social media is more dangerous of a tool than it is funny. Social media platforms must create strict policies and implement detection methods to curb this problem. Remember: deepfakes represent an issue everyone has to address promptly – leaving matters to go out of order is an untenable eventuality.
