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Ah, deepfakes. The latest and greatest in pioneering special effects to cater to the rapid expansion of artificial realism. Of course, we love them when they depict Keanu Reeves stopping an armed robbery, or to put Nic Cage into movies he wasn't in as shown in the deepfake video from this week, but these are both examples of harmless fun where the deepfake is obvious, for entertainment purposes, and not being used maliciously. A problem arises, however, when deepfakes take a different turn and target people that eventually cause harm to public opinion, trust, and ethics. I am referring to the surge of deepfakes being created to target politicians and public figures and the damage it can cause to an uninformed public.
A Partisan Challenge
On April 26, 2020, President Trump retweeted a deepfake gif of his political opponent, Joe Biden. For many people, this can be written off as just Trump laughing with an "obviously fake" gif of Democratic nominee, while others just throw it in the bin of the crazy late-night twitter antics the President has become known for. However, I think there is a serious problem with this kind of candid activity, intentional or not, spreads false information and beliefs. Trump, just the same as Biden or any other high visibility politician, has a level of unquestionable power and authority for their support groups, and humor is a subjective thing. There are undoubtedly people who gather their political information from Trump, and in turn would believe this tongue out gif is real, further souring the audience on somebody based on something that never even happened.
An Impossible Solution
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that there is no complete solution to this issue. As long as deepfakes continue to advance to the point where recognition of its falsity is almost impossible, it will always be used as an unethical propaganda machine. To add to this, many people in the United States struggle to acquire the resources to fact check these videos, especially those with low income. As shown by the graph below, about 28% of people that make less than $10,000 a year do not have Internet access, which, in the technological age of media, can make fact-checking these videos impossible. As intellectuals with access to internet, I think it is important that we do our ethical responsibility of making sure the falsities of these deepfakes are known to as many people as possible.
Source: USAFacts.org
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