Hmmm, how do we navigate the not-so brave new world of fake news?
Chances are you have one of these reactions several times a week if you spend time on a social media platform like Facebook. You scan your feed for something relevant, your eye stops on a particular post and you think: That can’t be true. I don’t believe it. OR Oh my God, how can that happen! Hopefully it is the first of those two reactions.
Welcome to the era of fake news. There is a whole industry driving the development. Multiple on-line tools, many of them free, enable you to plug in a fake news story, a fake image and a fake author and even get a fake URL. All that remains is to share the story on the internet.
Deep fake technology is an enabler of this insidious practice. A deep fake is media that is digitally altered to replace a person’s face or body with that of another. I can guarantee that you see at least one deep fake image every time you log on to a social media platform. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are a must-have resource in the tool kit of those who practice this art.
The creators of fake news often do it to make money by running ads. Outrageous stories and distorted images make great clickbait and generate profits because many people cannot resist sharing the weird news. But fake news can be more than a nuisance.
There was no small amount of fake news generated during the 2017 U.S. election. Some of it was apparently tracked back to teenagers in Macedonia. The teenagers determined that the more hyper-partisan the news they created, the more people clicked on and circulated it, and the more money they made. It is believed that this fake news may have influenced people’s opinions on the candidates.
Regulating fake news is well nigh impossible. In the U.S., under the Communications Decency Act, social media sites that host political information including deepfakes are legally immune from prosecution. What is required of them is limited to statements in their terms of use.
There have been calls to hold AI platforms legally responsible for disinformation which may result in guardrails on creating it. But that would amount to little more than putting a band-aid on the problem. Big Tech, such as Microsoft and Intel, have introduced deep fake detection tools. How effective these tools will be remains to be seen.
So what can we do to avoid being taken in by fake news? It comes down to the same strategies we employ to prevent falling victim to the endless scams that operate today.
Consider the source. It is a known and reputable entity? If not, and even it seems to be, cross-check the information on multiple reliable sources to see if it holds water. And, of course, exercise a healthy degree of skepticism. It if sounds too good or too bad or too ridiculous to be true, it most probably is not true.
Fake news arguably falls under the infodemic metaphor that references fast, wide-spreading false information. That term came to be associated with false information about the coronavirus pandemic. But these days it can be expanded to include the explosion of fake news in all forms and the harmful effects of it. Reader beware is the new catchphrase of our times.
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~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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Tags: clickbait · deep fake · fake news · infodemic · metaphor · Michae Robert DyetNo Comments