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Lawmakers Worry About Rise of Fake Video Technology (thehill.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Lawmakers are concerned that advances in video manipulation technology could set off a new era of fake news. Now legislators say they want to start working on fixes to the problem before it's too late. From a report: Technology experts have begun to sound the alarm on the new software, which lets users take existing videos and make high-quality altered video and audio that appears real. The emergence of the technology opens up a new world of hoaxes driven by doctored audio or video, and threatens to shake faith in the media even further. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of the most vocal members of Congress on tech issues, painted a grim picture about what the advances could mean for the future of discerning truth in media. "Since we can't rely on the responsibility of individual actors or the platforms they use, I fully expect there will be a proliferation of these sorts of fictions to a degree that nearly drowns out actual facts," Wyden told The Hill. "For those who value real information, there will still be some reliable publications and news outlets, and their credibility will need to be guarded all the more intently by professional journalists," he added.

12 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Threatened by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The media desperately want to keep a lock on being the only ones who can manipulate video for propaganda use.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Threatened by DCFusor · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Didn't you mean "the government desperately want" or "the elite", MIC, or similar? As pointed out, Hollywood's been doing this for quite awhile. And our government admits to wanting to "control the narrative". They didn't even hide the RFP's for it. I'll just leave this here: https://phys.org/news/2011-10-...

      --
      Why guess when you can know? Measure!
    2. Re:Threatened by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "I use NPR as my primary news source, as I find it the most trustworthy, "

      In my case it' TheOnion, because albeit 'fake' at least it's funny.

    3. Re:Threatened by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I welcome news that challenges my world view, However if I cannot trust it (because other then truth they are pandering to other world views), I need to default back to my world view.

      Trust isn't binary, it's a scale. I tend to trust the BBC quite a lot, for example, because although I don't always agree with their characterisation of events the factual stuff is usually right, and they post corrections.

      There has been a push by those who benefit from fake news to make people think that one mistake makes a source completely untrustworthy to the point where you can safely ignore anything it says that contradicts your preferred reality. The BBC make an error once, CNN made some misleading statements, therefore they are fake news and no better than Brietbart or Infowars. And hay, at least Infowars isn't part of the dreaded MSM, at least they give you the real news that others dare not speak... And you are a smart guy, you can tell fake from true, so why not watch a bit of Fox and decide for yourself?

      In reality prolonged exposure to Fox et. al causes brain damage that reduces a person's ability to smell bullshit.

      who knows perhaps Fox News is actually a real source of truth

      It definitely isn't. Stick to NPR.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. It gets even better.... by MitchDev · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...there is absolutely Fuck-All they can do about it.

    1. Re:It gets even better.... by rot26 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I'm going to guess that you believe that you are smarter than 90% of Trump voters.

      And THAT is your fatal flaw, and the reason that You Don't Get It.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunningâ"Kruger_effect

      --



      To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
  3. "media" back to reporters? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So, what they're saying is the media has to hire real journalists now and actually do their job correctly instead of bumming off reddit and twitter posts?

  4. Blame the technology by ArhcAngel · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The loss of faith in MSM is entirely self inflicted. They've been caught time and again faking on location scenes, reporting entirely unfounded stories which when disproved they are slow to retract, and they bias their stories with a slant to their political ideology. It's gotten so bad even people of like mind are starting to get wise and tune out. Whenever I see a "breaking news" headline now I look for at least five sources before I even consider it might be real. They are so hyper focused on finding something to rag on the the current presidency they ignore news that Americans are actually interested in.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    1. Re:Blame the technology by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They've been caught time and again faking on location scenes, reporting entirely unfounded stories which when disproved they are slow to retract, and they bias their stories with a slant to their political ideology.

      Don't fall for this. Yes, there are problems, but just because someone publishes a blog "debunking" some story and 8 minutes later it's still up on Reuters even though it's been pointed out that it's FAKE NEWS and an obvious product of Clinton's bought and paid for leftist "journalists" doesn't mean... Well, it doesn't mean shit.

      There is fake news, but there is probably even more fake fake news trying to convince you that real news is fake.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  5. CNN Welcomes it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    I liked the video of a CNN cameraman acting as a protestor and the host back in the studio accidently called him out.
    Or the other CNN video where the woman on the street was telling them how to act when they went live a few seconds before she realized it.
    Or the other CNN video with the focus group where the interviewer of the group was coaching the person what to say when they ended up live a few seconds early again.

    Now at least CNN can make the claim that they are fake videos and not them making up the news they report on.

  6. that's gonna totally work! by ooloorie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Now legislators say they want to start working on fixes to the problem before it's too late.

    Yeah, they are going to ban fake videos! It's gonna work just as well as banning underage drinking, poverty, pot smoking, illegal guns, prostitution, and all the other things Washington has banned! If you don't like something, pass a law against it, and it magically disappears! That's what Ron Wyden believes, and he doesn't let facts get in the way of what he holds dear and true!

  7. Inevetible: Total Recall predicted this by kfh227 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This was all inevitable. I knew this would happen ever since I saw Total Recall.