Researchers examine the negative impacts of political deepfakes on social media
In the ever changing world of technology we have seen the development of many media manipulation tools that provide us with the ability to enhance our photos, audio and videos. In the hands of the right people, this tech is harmless—simply a means to create better content. On the contrary, this tech in the hands of the reckless and powerful can lead to mass manipulation and disinformation.
Within the last few years, technology has developed so much so, as to give people the power to manipulate both video and audio to create virtually any message an individual wants to send. Take for example, the rise of deepfakes. For those unfamiliar, a deepfake is any video that can be altered to make it seem as though the speaker is saying a message they never actually said.
In a 2019 study conducted by Cristian Vaccari and Andrew Chadwick, respondents were asked to view variations of a video created by Buzzfeed which appears to show former president Barack Obama telling viewers that “President Trump is a complete and total dipshit.” The video was then posted by the popular outlet with the headline “You Won’t Believe What Obama Says In This Video!” At its full length, the video is a public service announcement to make people aware of the power of these editing features and to be wary of information spread via social media.
For the study, the video was filmed as three separate iterations by three different groups. One group, viewing the announcement in full and two others viewing snippets. One which only contains the phrase “President Trump is a complete and total dipshit.”; the other contains about 30 seconds of the video in which “Obama” begins his address reminding the public that we live in a time where anyone can manipulate content to convey messages they want us to believe.
This deepfake in particular, was scripted and acted out by the well known African American actor, director and comedian Jordan Peele. Peele’s dialogue was then superimposed over an existing public address of former president Obama using AI technology.
The goal of this study was to determine whether or not individuals find information spread via social media to be less reliable than that of news reported directly from an official news outlet. What researchers ultimately found was that respondents who watched snippets of the video compared to its full length, were more likely to be deceived by its message and more likely to be uncertain of content spread via social media.
It’s no surprise that these individuals were skeptical of the video’s content, especially considering the power of social media to regularly craft and spread false narratives. In a time where we are regularly immersed in content with the world—quite literally at our fingertips, it is easier than ever for the wrong information to spread like wildfire.
While it is near impossible to calm the spread of disinformation once a certain level of hysteria manifests, it is imperative that we are conscious of media sources before sharing, reposting and retweeting information that may seem misleading so as to benefit ourselves and the world around us.
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