Misinformation in Realm of Deepfake
Introduction
In an age where the lines between truth and fiction blur with an alarming regularity, we stand at the precipice of a new and dangerous era. Amidst the wealth of information that characterizes the digital age, deep fakes and disinformation rise like ghosts, haunting our shared reality. These manifestations of a technological revolution that promised enlightenment instead threaten the foundations upon which our societies are built: trust, truth, and collective understanding.
These digital doppelgängers, enabled by advanced artificial intelligence, and their deceitful companion—disinformation—are not mere ghosts in the machine. They are active agents of chaos, capable of undermining the core of democratic values, human rights, and even the safety of individuals who dare to question the status quo.
The Perils of False Narratives in the Digital Age
As a society, we often throw around terms such as 'fake news' with a mixture of disdain and a weary acceptance of their omnipresence. However, we must not understate their gravity. Misinformation and disinformation represent the vanguard of the digital duplicitous tide, a phenomenon growing more complex and dire each day. Misinformation, often spread without malicious intent but with no less damage, can be likened to a digital 'slip of the tongue' — an error in dissemination or interpretation. Disinformation, its darker counterpart, is born of deliberate intent to deceive, a calculated move in the chess game of information warfare.
Their arsenal is varied and ever-evolving: from misleading memes and misattributed quotations to wholesale fabrications in the form of bogus news sites and carefully crafted narratives. Among these weapons of deceit, deepfakes stand out for their audacity and the striking challenge they pose to the concept of seeing to believe. Through the unwelcome alchemy of algorithms, these video and audio forgeries place public figures, celebrities, and even everyday individuals into scenarios they never experienced, uttering words they never said.
The Human Cost: Threats to Rights and Liberties
The impact of this disinformation campaign transcends inconvenience or mere confusion; it strikes at the heart of human rights and civil liberties. It particularly festers at the crossroads of major democratic exercises, such as elections, where the right to a truthful, unmanipulated narrative is not just a political nicety but a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 25 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
In moments of political change, whether during elections or pivotal referenda, the deliberate seeding of false narratives is a direct assault on the electorate's ability to make informed decisions. This subversion of truth infects the electoral process, rendering hollow the promise of democratic choice.
This era of computational propaganda has especially chilling implications for those at the frontline of accountability—journalists and human rights defenders. They find themselves targets of character assassinations and smear campaigns that not only put their safety at risk but also threaten to silence the crucial voices of dissent.
It should not be overlooked that the term 'fake news' has, paradoxically, been weaponized by governments and political entities against their detractors. In a perverse twist, this label becomes a tool to shut down legitimate debate and shield human rights violations from scrutiny, allowing for censorship and the suppression of opposition under the guise of combatting disinformation.
Deepening the societal schisms, a significant portion of this digital deceit traffic in hate speech. Its contents are laden with xenophobia, racism, and calls to violence, all given a megaphone through the anonymity and reach the internet so readily provides, feeding a cycle of intolerance and violence vastly disproportionate to that seen in traditional media.
Legislative and Technological Countermeasures: The Ongoing Struggle
The fight against this pervasive threat, as illustrated by recent actions and statements by the Indian government, is multifaceted. Notably, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar's commitment to safeguarding the Indian populace from the dangers of AI-generated misinformation signals an important step in the legislative and policy framework necessary to combat deepfakes.
Likewise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's personal experience with a deepfake video accentuates the urgency with which policymakers, technologists, and citizens alike must view this evolving threat. The disconcerting experience of actor Rashmika Mandanna serves as a sobering reminder of the individual harm these false narratives can inflict and reinforces the necessity of a robust response.
In their pursuit to negate these virtual apparitions, policymakers have explored various avenues ranging from legislative action to penalizing offenders and advancing digital watermarks. However, it is not merely in the realm of technology that solutions must be sought. Rather, the confrontation with deepfakes and disinformation is also a battle for the collective soul of societies across the globe.
As technological advancements continue to reshape the battleground, figures like Kris Gopalakrishnan and Manish Gangwar posit that only a mix of rigorous regulatory frameworks and savvy technological innovation can hold the front line against this rising tidal wave of digital distrust.
This narrative is not a dystopian vision of a distant future - it is the stark reality of our present. And as we navigate this new terrain, our best defenses are not just technological safeguards, but also the nurturing of an informed and critical citizenry. It is essential to foster media literacy, to temper the human inclination to accept narratives at face value and to embolden the values that encourage transparency and the robust exchange of ideas.
As we peer into the shadowy recesses of our increasingly digital existence, may we hold fast to our dedication to the truth, and in doing so, preserve the essence of our democratic societies. For at stake is not just a technological arms race, but the very quality of our democratic discourse and the universal human rights that give it credibility and strength.
Conclusion
In this age of digital deceit, it is crucial to remember that the battle against deep fakes and disinformation is not just a technological one. It is also a battle for our collective consciousness, a battle to preserve the sanctity of truth in an era of falsehoods. As we navigate the labyrinthine corridors of the digital world, let us arm ourselves with the weapons of awareness, critical thinking, and a steadfast commitment to truth. In the end, it is not just about winning the battle against deep fakes and disinformation, but about preserving the very essence of our democratic societies and the human rights that underpin them.
Related Blogs
Introduction
US President Biden takes a step by signing a key executive order to manage the risks posed by AI. The new presidential order on Artificial intelligence (AI) sets rules on the rapidly growing technology that has big potential but also covers risks. The presidential order was signed on 30th October 2023. It is a strong action that the US president has taken on AI safety and security. This order will require the developers to work on the most powerful AI model to share their safety test results with the government before releasing their product to the public. It also includes developing standards for ethically using AI and for detecting AI-generated content and labelling it as such. Tackling the many dangers of AI as it rapidly advances, the technology poses certain risks by replacing human workers, spreading misinformation and stealing people's data. The white house is also making clear that this is not just America’s problem and that the US needs to work with the world to set standards here and to ensure the responsible use of AI. The white house is also urging Congress to do more and pass comprehensive privacy legislation. The order includes new safety guidelines for AI developers, standards to disclose AI-generated content and requirements for federal agencies that are utilising AI. The white house says that it is the strongest action that any government has taken on AI safety and security. In the most recent events, India has reported the biggest ever data breach, where data of 815 million Indians has been leaked. ICMR is the Indian Council of Medical Research and is the imperial medical research institution of India.
Key highlights of the presidential order
The presidential order requires developers to share safety test results. It focuses on developing standards, tools & tests to ensure safe AI. It will ensure protection from AI-enabled frauds and protect Americans' privacy, advance equity and civil rights, stand up for consumers and workers, promote innovation and competition, protect against risks of using AI to engineer dangerous material and provide guidelines for detecting AI -AI-generated content and establishing overall standards for AI safety and security.
Online content authentication and labelling
Biden administration has asked the Department of Commerce to set guidelines to help authenticate content coming from the government, meaning the American people should be able to trust official documents coming from the government. So, focusing on content authentication, they have also talked about labelling AI-generated content, making the differentiation between a real authentic piece of content and something that has been manipulated or generated using AI.
ICMR Breach
On 31/10/2023, an American intelligence and cybersecurity agency flagged the biggest-ever data breach, putting the data of 81.5 crore Indians at stake and at at potential risk of making its way to the dark market. The cyber agency has informed that a ‘threat actor’, also known as ‘pwn001’ shared a thread on Breach Forums, which is essentially claimed as the ‘premier Databreach discussion and leaks forum’. The forum confirms a breach of 81.5 crore Indians. As of today,, ICRM has not issued any official statement, but it has informed the government that the prestigious Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be taking on the investigation and apprehending the cybercriminals behind the cyber attack. The bad actor’s alias, 'pwn001,' made a post on X (formerly Twitter); the post informed that Aadhaar and passport information, along with personal data such as names, phone numbers, and addresses. It is claimed that the data was extracted from the COVID-19 test details of citizens registered with ICMR. This poses a serious threat to the Indian Netizen from any form of cybercrime from anywhere in the world.
Conclusion:
The US presidential order on AI is a move towards making Artificial intelligence safe and secure. This is a major step by the Biden administration, which is going to protect both Americans and the world from the considerable dangers of AI. The presidential order requires developing standards, tools, and tests to ensure AI safety. The US administration will work with allies and global partners, including India, to develop a strong international framework to govern the development and use of AI. It will ensure the responsible use of AI. With the passing of legislation such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, it is pertinent that the Indian government works towards creating precautionary and preventive measures to protect Indian data. As the evolution of cyber laws is coming along, we need to keep an eye on emerging technologies and update/amend our digital routines and hygienes to stay safe and secure.
References:
- https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/lokmattimes+english-epaper-lokmaten/biden+signs+landmark+executive+order+to+manage+ai+risks-newsid-n551950866?sm=Y
- https://www.hindustantimes.com/technology/in-indias-biggest-data-breach-personal-information-of-81-5-crore-people-leaked-101698719306335-amp.html?utm_campaign=fullarticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=inshorts
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Introduction
The ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas/ Palestine is in the news all across the world. The latest conflict was triggered by unprecedented attacks against Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, killing thousands of people. Israel has launched a massive counter-offensive against the Islamic militant group. Amid the war, the bad information and propaganda spreading on various social media platforms, tech researchers have detected a network of 67 accounts that posted false content about the war and received millions of views. The ‘European Commission’ has sent a letter to Elon Musk, directing them to remove illegal content and disinformation; otherwise, penalties can be imposed. The European Commission has formally requested information from several social media giants on their handling of content related to the Israel-Hamas war. This widespread disinformation impacts and triggers the nature of war and also impacts the world and affects the goodwill of the citizens. The bad group, in this way, weaponise the information and fuels online hate activity, terrorism and extremism, flooding political polarisation with hateful content on social media. Online misinformation about the war is inciting extremism, violence, hate and different propaganda-based ideologies. The online information environment surrounding this conflict is being flooded with disinformation and misinformation, which amplifies the nature of war and too many fake narratives and videos are flooded on social media platforms.
Response of social media platforms
As there is a proliferation of online misinformation and violent content surrounding the war, It imposes a question on social media companies in terms of content moderation and other policy shifts. It is notable that Instagram, Facebook and X(Formerly Twitter) all have certain features in place giving users the ability to decide what content they want to view. They also allow for limiting the potentially sensitive content from being displayed in search results.
The experts say that It is of paramount importance to get a sort of control in this regard and define what is permissible online and what is not, Hence, what is required is expertise to determine the situation, and most importantly, It requires robust content moderation policies.
During wartime, people who are aggrieved or provoked are often targeted by this internet disinformation that blends ideological beliefs and spreads conspiracy theories and hatred. This is not a new phenomenon, it is often observed that disinformation-spreading groups emerged and became active during such war and emergency times and spread disinformation and propaganda-based ideologies and influence the society at large by misrepresenting the facts and planted stories. Social media has made it easier to post user-generated content without properly moderating it. However, it is a shared responsibility of tech companies, users, government guidelines and policies to collectively define and follow certain mechanisms to fight against disinformation and misinformation.
Digital Services Act (DSA)
The newly enacted EU law, i.e. Digital Services Act, pushes various larger online platforms to prevent posts containing illegal content and also puts limits on targeted advertising. DSA enables to challenge the of illegal online content and also poses requirements to prevent misinformation and disinformation and ensure more transparency over what the users see on the platforms. Rules under the DSA cover everything from content moderation & user privacy to transparency in operations. DSA is a landmark EU legislation moderating online platforms. Large tech platforms are now subject to content-related regulation under this new EU law ‘The Digital Services Act’, which also requires them to prevent the spread of misinformation and disinformation and overall ensure a safer online environment.
Indian Scenario
The Indian government introduced the Intermediary Guidelines (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, updated in 2023 which talks about the establishment of a "fact check unit" to identify false or misleading online content. Digital Personal Data Protection, 2023 has also been enacted which aims to protect personal data. The upcoming Digital India bill is also proposed to be tabled in the parliament, this act will replace the current Information & Technology Act, of 2000. The upcoming Digital India bill can be seen as future-ready legislation to strengthen India’s current cybersecurity posture. It will comprehensively deal with the aspects of ensuring privacy, data protection, and fighting growing cyber crimes in the evolving digital landscape and ensuring a safe digital environment. Certain other entities including civil societies are also actively engaged in fighting misinformation and spreading awareness for safe and responsible use of the Internet.
Conclusion:
The widespread disinformation and misinformation content amid the Israel-Hamas war showcases how user-generated content on social media shows you the illusion of reality. There is widespread misinformation, misleading content or posts on social media platforms, and misuse of new advanced AI technologies that even make it easier for bad actors to create synthetic media content. It is also notable that social media has connected us like never before. Social media is a great platform with billions of active social media users around the globe, it offers various conveniences and opportunities to individuals and businesses. It is just certain aspects that require the attention of all of us to prevent the bad use of social media. The social media platforms and regulatory authorities need to be vigilant and active in clearly defining and improving the policies for content regulation and safe and responsible use of social media which can effectively combat and curtail the bad actors from misusing social media for their bad motives. As a user, it's the responsibility of users to exercise certain duties and promote responsible use of social media. With the increasing penetration of social media and the internet, misinformation is rampant all across the world and remains a global issue which needs to be addressed properly by implementing strict policies and adopting best practices to fight the misinformation. Users are encouraged to flag and report misinformative or misleading content on social media and should always verify it from authentic sources. Hence creating a safer Internet environment for everyone.
References:
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/experts-fear-hate-extremism-social-media-israel-hamas-war/story?id=104221215
- https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/14/tech/social-media-misinformation-israel-hamas/index.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/business/israel-hamas-misinformation-social-media-x.html
- https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/24/fact-check-misinformation-about-the-israel-hamas-war-is-flooding-social-media-here-are-the//
- https://www.theverge.com/23845672/eu-digital-services-act-explained
Executive Summary:
A video clip being circulated on social media allegedly shows the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu, the TV anchor Anjana Om Kashyap and the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Yogi Adityanath promoting a medicine for diabetes. While The CyberPeace Research Team did a thorough investigation, the claim was found to be not true. The video was digitally edited, with original footage of the heavy weight persons being altered to falsely suggest their endorsement of the medication. Specific discrepancies were found in the lip movements and context of the clips which indicated AI Manipulation. Additionally, the distinguished persons featured in the video were actually discussing unrelated topics in their original footage. Therefore, the claim that the video shows endorsements of a diabetes drug by such heavy weights is debunked. The conclusion drawn from the analysis is that the video is an AI creation and does not reflect any genuine promotion. Furthermore, it's also detected by AI voice detection tools.
Claims:
A video making the rounds on social media purporting to show the Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Draupadi Murmu, TV anchor Anjana Om Kashyap, and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath giving their endorsement to a diabetes medicine.
Fact Check:
Upon receiving the post we carefully watched the video and certainly found some discrepancies between lip synchronization and the word that we can hear. Also the voice of Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath seems to be suspicious which clearly indicates some sign of fabrication. In the video, we can hear Hon'ble President of India Smt. Droupadi Murmu endorses a medicine that cured her diabetes. We then divided the video into keyframes, and reverse-searched one of the frames of the video. We landed on a video uploaded by Aaj Tak on their official YouTube Channel.
We found something similar to the same viral video, we can see the courtesy written as Sansad TV. Taking a cue from this we did some keyword searches and found another video uploaded by the YouTube Channel Sansad TV. In this video, we found no mention of any diabetes medicine. It was actually the Swearing in Ceremony of the Hon’ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu.
In the second part, there was a man addressed as Dr. Abhinash Mishra who allegedly invented the medicine that cures diabetes. We reverse-searched the image of that person and landed at a CNBC news website where the same face was identified as Dr Atul Gawande who is a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. We watched the video and found no sign of endorsing or talking about any diabetes medicine he invented.
We also extracted the audio from the viral video and analyzed it using the AI audio detection tool named Eleven Labs, which found the audio very likely to be created using the AI Voice generation tool with the probability of 98%.
Hence, the Claim made in the viral video is false and misleading. The Video is digitally edited using different clips and the audio is generated using the AI Voice creation tool to mislead netizens. It is worth noting that we have previously debunked such voice-altered news with bogus claims.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the viral video claiming that Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath promoted a diabetes medicine that cured their diabetes, is found to be false. Upon thorough investigation it was found that the video is digitally edited from different clips, the clip of Hon'ble President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu is taken from the clip of Oath Taking Ceremony of 15th President of India and the claimed doctor Abhinash Mishra whose video was found in CNBC News Outlet. The real name of the person is Dr. Atul Gawande who is a professor at Harvard School of Public Health. Online users must be careful while receiving such posts and should verify before sharing them with others.
Claim: A video is being circulated on social media claiming to show distinguished individuals promoting a particular medicine for diabetes treatment.
Claimed on: Facebook
Fact Check: Fake & Misleading
