Deepfake videos: moral panic, or harmless fun?

Deepfakes. We’ve all seen them by now. They are the short, edited videos of politicians and celebrities, saying things completely out of character, which look so plausibly genuine that at a quick glance—or on a small screen—you might catch yourself saying, “wait, did they really just say that?”

Of the most famous examples, there is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talking about the all-encompassing power of Big Data, or “Synthesizing Obama,” a project of three University of Washington researchers who created deepfake videos of former U.S. President Barack Obama.

With technology zooming ahead of detection and regulation, deepfakes have become something of a moral panic in democracies around the world. “Fake news” has become rampant and played a—however marginal—role in some of the globe’s biggest elections, such as the recent vote in India and, of course, Brazil 2018. The fear is that videos, when carefully constructed, would have an even bigger effect on public opinion, with fewer and fewer voters getting their information from the traditional media.

A group of U.S. lawmakers recently issued a letter calling deepfakes a national security issue. “As deep fake technology becomes more advanced and more accessible, it could pose a threat to [our] public discourse and national security, with broad and concerning implications for offensive active measures campaigns targeting the United States,” the letter said.

Brazilian deepfake master

However, while the deepfake technology and...