Deepfakes

In News: The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s cyberspace watchdog, is rolling out new regulations to restrict the use of deep synthesis technology and curb disinformation.

Deep synthesis:

• It is defined as the use of technologies, including deep learning and augmented reality, to generate text, images, audio and video to create virtual scenes.
• One of the most notorious applications of the technology is deepfakes, where synthetic media is used to swap the face or voice of one person for another.

Deepfakes:

• Deepfakes are a compilation of artificial images and audio put together with machine-learning algorithms to spread misinformation and replace a real person’s appearance, voice, or both with similar artificial likenesses or voices.
• It can create people who do not exist and it can fake real people saying and doing things they did not say or do.
• The term deepfake originated in 2017, when an anonymous Reddit user called himself “Deepfakes.” – the user manipulated Google’s open-source, deep-learning technology to create and post pornographic videos.
• The videos were doctored with a technique known as face-swapping – replaced real faces with celebrity faces.
• Deepfakes are getting harder to detect with the advancement of technology.
• Deepfake technology is now being used for nefarious purposes like scams and hoaxes, celebrity pornography, election manipulation, social engineering, automated disinformation attacks, identity theft and financial fraud.
• Deepfake technology has been used to impersonate notable personalities like former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and Hollywood celebrity Tom Cruise.

China’s new policy to curb deepfakes:

• The policy requires deep synthesis service providers and users to ensure that any doctored content using the technology is explicitly labelled and can be traced back to its source.
• The regulation also mandates people using the technology to edit someone’s image or voice, to notify and take the consent of the person in question
• When reposting news made by the technology, the source can only be from the government-approved list of news outlets.
• Deep synthesis service providers must also abide by local laws, respect ethics, and maintain the “correct political direction and correct public opinion orientation.

• Due to concerns about unchecked development and use of deep synthesis could lead to its use in criminal activities like online scams or defamation and  to curb risks that might arise from activities provided by platforms which use deep learning or virtual reality to alter any online content.

India:

• There are no legal rules against using deepfake technology.
• However, specific laws can be addressed for misusing the tech, which include Copyright Violation, Defamation and cyber felonies.

The European Union’s Code of Practice

• Introduced in 2018, the Code of Practice on Disinformation brought together for the first time worldwide industry players to commit to counter disinformation.
• The Code of Practice was signed by online platforms Facebook, Google, Twitter and Mozilla, as well as by advertisers and other players in the advertising industry. Microsoft joined in May 2019, while TikTok signed the Code in June 2020.
• If found non-compliant, these companies can face fines as much as 6% of their annual global turnover.

U.S’s bipartisan Deepfake Task Force Act 2021

• To assist the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to counter deepfake technology.
• The measure directs the DHS to conduct an annual study of deepfakes — assess the technology used, track its uses by foreign and domestic entities, and come up with available countermeasures to tackle the same.

Source: The Hindu

Previous Year Questions

Q.1) Which one of the following statements best describes the role of B cells and T cells in the human body ? (2022)

1. They protect the body from environmental allergens.
2. They alleviate the body’s pain and inflammation.
3. They act as immunosuppressants in the body.
4. They protect the body from the diseases caused by pathogens.