Twitter plans to crack down on 'deceptively edited' and deepfaked media content by labeling tweets that contain these images and videos. According to Reuters, the company also plans to remove edited or computer-generated content in cases where it may put someone's privacy or safety at risk, suppress voters or cause 'widespread civil unrest.'
Twitter's decision comes ahead of the contentious 2020 presidential election season, which is expected to include huge quantities of manipulated and deepfaked content intended to shape the outcome of the election. Other major online platforms have enacted similar rules about deepfaked content, though some critics say they aren't taking a hard enough stance against such content.
Facebook, for example, likewise labels fake or otherwise altered images as 'false,' but won't remove this type of content unless it is a video generated using AI to make it appear that someone is saying something they never said. According to Reuters, Twitter will take into account the text in a tweet and 'other contextual signals' to decide whether a post will be labeled as false or removed entirely.
It remains unclear how Twitter's platform will detect manipulated and deepfaked content.
I don't think Twitter fully appreciates the potential legal risk of what they are doing.
By saying they will remove material that is fake or misleading they are taking responsibility for the factual nature of the material allowed to remain on their site. That makes them personally liable for any defamatory material not removed.
Then there is the potential for massive FEC violations. If they remove content supporting a candidate but allow it for their opponent that would be an in-kind campaign contribution.
How ironic that we live in a society with more access to share news and information than at any time in our history but we abuse the privilege to such an extent that it becomes useless.
"It remains unclear how many of President Tr***s tweets will remain visible after this fake news & misinformation 'scrub' takes effect. Some speculate that one or two tweets may be left, but it is unlikely."
And that's the only reason they are doing this: to censor people they don't like. Can't wait to see the libs lose their minds again in November. They are going down hard.
You do realize that the opposite of "libs" is, of course, "cons", right? A fitting slang term...
The reason "they" are doing this is quite clear: because modern society has somehow gotten the ridiculous notion in their heads that the entirety of social media is a legitimate form of official news, which requires zero fact-checking in order to be believed, re-shared, and eventually "become fact"...
This is an extremely risky position for humankind to be in, and all social media platforms should be implementing systems that allow for the detection and/or flagging/reporting of unverified information.
Believe all the conspiracies you want; this isn't censorship, it's the self-correcting of what should be a forum of opinions and discussion, not a global means for twisting personal opinions into objective truths.
BTW my comments are largely sarcasm; I don't care much for politics in general. The comment section on a photography website is not a place for serious debate.
Believe what you want. The ONLY reason they are censoring things is because they believe it helps their liberal cause. They key phrase is "believe it helps." It won't. Another ridiculous notion is that people believe CNN is a legitimate source of news. I guess we should start censoring them, too?
@Mister Anders0n - Believe what YOU want. You want to live behind conspiracy theories, go right ahead. I think anyone that puts out a deep fake video with the intent of misleading people to further an agenda - any agenda - should be fined at the minimum, or jailed. We're treading into dangerous waters. Most people on the internet are just too stupid and ignorant to know when something is fake and unfortunately they are the majority.
I can't make this any simpler: They created the platform. They can do what they want with it. Don't like it? Become an entrepreneur and build a Twitter that promotes conservative propaganda instead. That's how this works.
Lol Twitter and Facebook. Those two including Google are part of the obviously existing globalist deep state a.k. NWO. They are here to censor us into oblivion.
I'd agree with no censorship if they remove any paid speech. So ban all advertising and crack down on PR firms and troll farms to manipulate the discussion.
Then we'd have free speech instead of paid for PR and propaganda.
Makes sense. Twitter has become the Fox News of social media. I made a very mild comparison between Trumps governing style, and retarding timing on a car. I’ve been banned for 6 months now for that. The only way to make it active again is to recant the tweet, which I won’t do. That kind of censorship is a bridge too far.
Pretty funny how people talk about Fox like they are untruthful. CNN, MSNBC and the rest do nothing but lie all day long. Unfortunately, the sheeple don't know any better, so they take it as gospel.
Well then, you could say there are two kinds of media corruption. One is media corruptly lying for their own agenda, and the other is media corruptly lying in partnership with a government administration. While we resent both, the corrupt govt/media partnership is more dangerous and loathsome.
Turns out, Trump was right again. They were in fact spying on his campaign. If all you ever watch is the mainstream media, I can see why you hate Trump and Fox News, because the MSM spews lies and hate 24/7. Take a red pill and wake up.
Picking on Russians for the outcome of the election huh?
When Trump was running for the president, almost every media outlets and many, many celebrities were picking on Trump yet people made their own mind up and voted for Trump.
So it's ridicious to think that fake news on the social networks have caused this where majority of people using social networks are young.
Without addressing specific claims regarding a particular candidate, you've apparently not seen the demographic numbers for Facebook. Young people have long since moved on from Facebook. Facebook is for grandmothers and the middle-aged: higher turnout age groups that are also highly susceptible targets for manipulated content.
In addition, Facebook's advertising platform allows such micro-targeting of bogus content, e.g., voters in a particular subdivision in suburban Philadelphia, that it can indeed be weaponized to sway an election where a few thousand votes can be the difference between a state going red or blue.
Truth is racing to the bottom at an amazing clip. People only listen to the news that confirms their own beliefs even when their own beliefs are fantasy. We are truly living in strange times.
Yeah, I'm going to start my own Twitter from scratch and be able to compete with the social media companies. What a moronic comment. I don't use that crap anyway; it's a toxic cesspool.
You'd be the first to complain if somebody told you that your private company couldn't take an action that would, in your purview as a manager/executive, make your product better. Yet, here you are crying censorship when Twitter does it. Twitter can do what it pleases. It's a private concern, not the government. My point about starting your own company was an absurd way of saying: if you don't like it, don't use it. Telling me to move to an authoritarian country doesn't strengthen your case, it just makes you sound like an internet troll.
Just because they CAN, doesn't mean they should. Censorship is never the answer, and if you support it, then you don't deserve to live in a country with free speech. Simple as that.
Calling this censorship is one of the biggest cases of "pot calling kettle black" of the decade.
A major issue exists with fact-checking and false information going viral. Every social media platform has an urgent responsibility to at least create tools for reporting and screening inaccurate or incorrect content. At present, the system is a complete joke, and poses a major risk of mass hysteria.
'Just because they CAN, doesn't mean they should. Censorship is never the answer, and if you support it, then you don't deserve to live in a country with free speech. Simple as that."
Let's boil down your logic so we can see what it really means: "If you support the right of a private company to run its business how it sees fit, you should go live in communist China."
Mister Anderson doesn't understand "free speech." Free speech is the government being prohibited from censoring its citizens right to political speech. This doesn't apply to Twitter. It doesn't apply to Facebook. It doesn't apply to your right to have your opinion posted on a privately run Internet forum. Heck, the right to publish lies, which is what a deepfake video is, may not even be protected under the First Amendment. I have a feeling this will be litigated at some point in the future.
Go back to the Matrix, Mr Anderson. You're not needed here.
Well, the right to TRY to publish lies as fact has been around forever, that's what the tabloid industry is all about.
That's also how you get sued for libel, and that's a $$$ business too; libel/slander lawyers LOVE the 1st amendment, lol!
Social media is totally different, though. Basically, what we have are these platforms that created a forum for individual voices, but it's completely unregulated. You could lie non-stop and never get sued for libel.
The problem isn't that, per se. The problem is that modern society is dumb enough to see this platform of opinions and facts, and just start believing EVERYTHING as if it were official news.
So, yes, there should be a better system in place for reporting and even prosecuting libelous or other false statements. Society needs to learn that free speech comes at a price. The more you can lie without consequence, and the more the public believes false information, ...the more free speech itself is meaningless...
I'm all good with it because with all the fake news, deceptive stories and spin ... how can we believe anything in the first place? And if it's not fake or deceptive then we have people just decrying news as fake or lies. Even the people in government will tell lies and distort truths to get what they or their policies want. It has always been so. Why not leave everything up to Twitter because it surely can't do any worse.
For example when you have a political advert, it should be checked against facts and only allowed if it's at least reasonably accurate. Even that is not happening.
thoth22: I can think for myself and like to research what i'm reading, like many others but so many people just blindly believe everything they being told on social media. Unfortunately these people decide important matters with their vote.
blackcoffee17: what you say would be true but when you get your "facts" from the same media source as the questionable content, it only reinforces the lie. Who actually reads/listens/watches unbiased news? Heck, here in the US, you would be hard pressed to find unbiased news which means we have conservatives thinking liberals are socialist baby killers and liberals thinking conservatives are xenophobic gun toting racists. add to that a government that is stoking the division to gather votes. Strange times...
Boomanbb: I'm talking about researching a bit what you read in a political campaign for example. Not just naively believing everything and who has the most convincing lie will win.
blackcoffee17: I am in complete agreement with you, just pointing out that we are the minority in a world where people believe Obama is not a US citizen, Sandy Hook was fake and man did not land on the moon.
Social media shouldn't have purported itself to be an official news outlet in the first place.
We shot ourselves in the foot with this one. When 50-75% of the chatter on a platform is crying wolf, or shouting "fire!" in a theater, then that platform has a responsibility to attempt to screen the mess it has made.
How about labeling everything as fake and just marking specific content as verified to be genuine? Yeah, that wouldn’t work either. How about people just share pictures of their ugly kids on Facebook and read Twitter for conspiracy theories about contrails? Because that’s all they’re really good for. No, that won’t work either. People are stupid, jump at every dog whistle and believe exactly what they choose to believe. Minds aren’t changed by Twitter, it’s just more confirmation bias.
"People are stupid, jump at every dog whistle and believe exactly what they choose to believe. Minds aren’t changed by Twitter, it’s just more confirmation bias." -- But glad that some CLEAR SIGHTED people still rise far above the rest.
Maybe they should start to tell readers that photographs are context sensitive man made cultural artifacts, they are representations and not reality ...
Will be so much better in USSSR. Half of the brexit campaign was 100% lies and the other half was half truths. That's we need to filter some content out maybe
The beginning of the end of EUSSR! Yes we can! Whether the English empire has good intentions by being independent from EUSSR is another story... Maybe they will only bring Uncle Sam closer to Europe...
there is no empire, just a small country with a poor industrial base who has decided to leave it's biggest free trading bloc and not align with them.....sounds like a success story to me.....
Wu: Exactly. There is no such thing as English or British empire anymore. The country is tiny with no natural resources and economically 6-7 times smaller than EU, US or China.
Lol, deepfakes are getting better fast, very fast. It won't take them long to leave the uncanny valley and then just a few more iterations to avoid machine-based detection.
For the long term, not only twitter but our whole society needs to come up with something better. People have gotten used to not trust images. Now they need to get used to not trust video or sound.
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