Thread by @MickCote

Now: Easy to Fool? Journalism in the Age of Deepfakes with @pcheung630, @jeremygilbert, @kellymcb and Matthew Stamm of Drexel University. #SXSWDeepfakes

There have been synthetic media almost since the beginning of "media," notes @jeremygilbert. Heroic photos of Lincoln, for example, were toyed with to make him look good. #SXSWDeepfakes

Nowadays. some videos can't even be proof that something happened, says @jeremygilbert. Deepfakes are a small subset of synthetic media. They're the ones generated with AI. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

.@kellymcb says democracy doesn't work because a critical mass no longer finds any information believeable unless it reinforces their viewpoint. #SXSWdeepfakes #SXSW19

Deepfakes are now democratized for anybody and not just impacting people with media or social stature, says @pcheung630. Social media has made it possible for everyone to publish them. #SXSWDeepfakes

Journalists are already often duped into publishing spin and false information, says @kellymcb. It'll likely only worsen. #SXSWDeepfakes

Matt Stamm says deepfakes are one thing, but even small edits like clipping a video, you can completely change the context. Content-aware fill is also becoming more sophisticated #SXSWDeepfakes

When you share something through social media, file compression essentially wipes out a ton of forensic traces. Originals can yield lots of information. Something scraped off Facebook is a lot less rich in information says Stamm. #SXSWDeepfakes

Signal processing, image processing, leave behind statistical fingerprints in image or video, he says. But social networks wipe a lot of infor. #SXSWDeepfakes

Could social networks make this info available? asks @kellymcb -- Stamm says maybe. Analysis techniques vary in processing time. It remains an issue. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

.@pcheung630 says many newsrooms exercise some level of caution. The tech is evolving quickly, however and identification methods can quickly expire. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

.@kellymcb says journalists need to evaluate the journalistic purpose of the information. Is it worth amplifying? #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

Paraphrasing: Normally if you can get journalists to set aside the business values temporarily and focus on the journalism, you can start looking at what has value in the information, says @kellymcb #SXSWdeepfakes

Journalism itself is really going to ask some existential questions about creating a research organization to tackle the issue of truth in democracy. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

.@pcheung630 says deepfakes represent a medium problem right now, but the erosion of journalism, particularly on a local level, could make it worse #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

A mix of tech and humans will have to take this on. Part of the solution set says @pcheung630 is part tech and part awareness. Journalists need to understand this. #SXSWdeepfakes #SXSW19

"Inherently, this is a human problem," says Stamm. "Media can be distributed to anyone without a gatekeeper." #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

Technologically, there would be no way to embed content analysis or authentication for fakes in social networks like YouTube even if it took a tenth of a second to do. Business cost and tech limitations, says Stamm. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

What if, in journalism, we were more transparent and clearly outlining methods and process?

Does government play a role? asks @jeremygilbert. @kellymcb says "yes, in desseminating false information" #SXSW19 #SXSWDeepfakes

.@jeremygilbert says some newsrooms have transparency initiatives. Labelling of News, analysis, opinion, for example. Are there other things we can do? @kellymcb says we should have some kind of international group to look at this. #SXSWdeepfakes #SXSW19

@pcheung630 says that's not necessarily a solution because some people will share content even if it's fake because it aligns with their views. We need to engage with civic leaders, lawyers and academics. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

From the tech perspective: you can show something is fake, but it's hard to show something is real. Finding no proof of tampering doesn't necessarily mean the content is real. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

PRNU (baslerweb.com/en/sales-suppo…) is unique to specific cameras, notes Stamm. But to use it, you need data to compare it to. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

It's hard to identify every fingerprint of every editing operations. Deep learning could do this but it takes a lot of data, notes Stamm. They now analyse portions of content for local edits, etc. to warn of potential edits #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

Technological solutions are helpful for some kind of warning, but no silver bullet. Even quantifying our confidence is tough. Will we ever be ok with a margin of error on identifying fakes? #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW2019

What about fake audio, asks @pcheung630 :
Stamm says the science comm looks more into it. They look at ENF, for example, to find timestamps, based on powergrid. (yes, 🤯) Background here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrica… #SXSW19 #SXSWdeepfakes

Q: Momo challenge! What is the step beyond news debunking when the story doesn't make it to the public?
@kellymcb says what we need to do is understand the method communication. We need effective memes to fight fake content memes, basically. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

@pcheung630 says AP has a role in shaping the conversation on debunking and hoax and putting it in the stylebook.

.@kellymcb makes a wonderful point: people see memes, illustrations, methods of communications they understand. Media gives them 900 words they won't read to tell them it's fake. That's not the way to go. Format matters. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

IT. IS. NOT. A. MAGIC. BULLET. says Stamm. Tech won't solve the problem on its own. Once it fails, trust in that system will collapse. We all have a role to play. It's a human problem. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

Q: Compression standards by algorithms in social media are controlled by organisations. Should they be held responsible?
Stamm says no. Compression tech for JPEG was created so long ago. There's more social good in sharing images and videos.

He doesn't believe that a centralized solution to compression and photo or video coding standards will necessarily help. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

.@pcheung630 says we need to ask ourselves what the negative aspects and potential biases of new techs. Less about regulation, more about responsibility to identify issues. #SXSWDeepfakes #SXSW19

I can't live tweet this bit of the conversation with hecklers because it went so quickly but this was likely the best #SXSW19 panel I've seen this week. Well done, everyone! #SXSWdeepfakes #SXSW19