To think that when we can't even trust the evidence of our eyes and ears......

[LanaKanesLeftNippleTassle]

.........The future of real news and information is truly fucked???

Just reading this (brief) article this morning, about video and voice manipulation software....

The future of fake news: don't believe everything you read, see or hear
(Guardian link btw)

If we already have a glut of fake news, false panics and urban myths spreading as fact through social media (see the thread yesterday about anti freeze in chilli vodka for a classic example) what hope do we have if any old moron can edit a video of a leader, politician, important figure or even a fucking c list sleb, to say something extremely damaging, and make it look realistic??!

People will already believe things they feel to be right over actual factual evidence, it's not really going to help if some teen in China can produce a video of Trump/May/insert foreign leader and/or politico of choice here, that backs up their feelings is it??

This software could have damaging effects, even if its just getting a Hollywood actor into deep shit, potentially life destroying stuff.

But, as someone says in the article, imagine a video, realistic to everyone but the best trained eye, that shows Trump declaring war on North Korea, doing the rounds on social media......it might get dismissed, but what if it causes panic amongst enough people??

Plus the security implications are already being realised.....you can already synthesize a voice enough to override some voice activated security systems.

This isn't going to end well, is it??

I know I probably sound a bit tin foil hat paranoid, but with every conversation I have I am realising more and more people are just getting their "facts" from random shit on social media, and taking everything at face value.

I don't think there will be mass panic because of a Facebook video.

Most people get their news from more than one source.

Standing in Tesco, stockpiling water because you heard about a war on FB, would get you laughed out of the place.

Even very convincing videos are easily refuted.

Without reading the link, particularly concerning your last paragraph, is taking "facts" from social media any different than taking "facts" at face value from red tops? Hillsborough springs to mind. Milly Downer case does as well.

It's only now that "journalism" has taken a different course. Newspapers have always taken quotes out of context to make it sound like people have said certain things without giving the full story. It's why you could read two versions of events, one in say the Guardian and one on the Daily Mail reporting on exactly the same thing but with two totally different points of view. Isn't that so called Fake News?

Hmmm I wasn't really thinking about apocalyptic style panicking by the masses, more the issues it can cause both politically IYSWIM.

So if enough people see a video that has been doctored, it might swing votes in an election for example.

Mission I get what you are saying, but the point is whether I read something in the Mail, the Times or the Guardian I always read around it as well, even if it's a quick glance at the way it is being reported in other, differently leaning papers.

But when people read stuff on social media, and it's been shared by enough people, they often just read it, think "ooh that backs up my feelings" and then simply click share without thinking about whether it's really true or not, then their 50 followers share and so on, and before you know it a completely fake video is all over the world.

It probably is just me being too paranoid, but theres enough fake shit out there anyway, too many fake pictures, too many fake stories, too many videos cut out of context to discredit someone, and the rise of this software just seems like the last straw tbh.

And yeah, everything in the media is skewed one way or another, but actual fake videos that are incredibly realistic just strike me as quite worrying.

Plus the security implications of exact voice recognition are another factor.

But I'm happy to be told to put the tin foil hat back in the cupboard though!!

Blackmail??

Send us money or we'll release this incredibly realistic video of you being racist/saying you abuse donkeys/ admitting to taking loads of heroin or something.

It wouldn't have to be verified for it to do enough damage on social media.

Cyber bullying?
Posting fake videos of fellow teens, saying really awful things to get them slated on social media??