Deepfakes are videos that stick one person’s face to another’s body, making the first it looks like they’re saying or doing something they’ve never done, even if it’s something as harmless as Tom Cruise talking to the camera and hitting a golf ball. They’re hard to detect just by watching the video, but here’s the good news: you don’t really need to watch the video to know that you’ve found a deepfake.
The Tom Cruise deepfakes (some short videos posted on TikTok in an account called @deeptomcruise) were convincing because they applied Tom Cruise’s face to an actor who had already built a career as a Tom Cruise impersonator. These videos were professionally produced and, honestly, there was no way to tell them they were deepfakes just by looking at them. Should we be concerned? Are we now living in a world where everything can be faked?
I mean, yes, but for years. For comparison, think of photoshopped images. Of course, a bad one can be obvious. But we do not normally examine the photos to find out if they have been altered. Instead, we are only aware that this happens quite often. You really need to look on the cover of a celebrity magazine to find out that the photo was probably altered? You do not.
It’s the same with deepfakes: WWhat matters is the context from the video and where it came from, not the details of how the pixels move. A video expert used for activism told the Vice that the biggest problem is that “We live in a world with many superficial vices – simple, poorly contextualized or edited videos”.
So, how can we find fake videos without examining every pixel? Mike Caulfield, an expert in digital literacy, tweeted about it recently, offering two structures to detect false nothing, and work well for deepfakes.
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SIFT
The first is SIFT, a concept he explains on here. There are four steps:
- Stop.
- Investigate the source.
- Find better coverage.
- Track statements, quotes and media back to the original context.
The first step can be applied as soon as you realize that you are being sucked, worrying or imagining – or when you realize that you are spending a lot of time examining an image to telltale signs of deception.
The rest of the steps are commonfeel questions that should have clear answers if what you are looking at is real. Caulfield cited an example from last year of a fake reporter with a convincing social media presence. Many details checked. The obvious sign of forgery, however? She said she wrote for Bloomberg, but no articles from her appeared on the Bloomberg website.
The Five Pillars
Another checklist for checking a video or photo is called a Five Pillars of Visual Verification, from the anti-disinformation organization First Draft.
As they say:
The good thing about teaching verification is that it is easy to decipher. That’s because, whether you’re watching a video from an eyewitness, a manipulated photo, a sockpuppet account or a meme, the basic checks you should perform are the same:
Provenance: Are you looking at the account, article or original content?
Source: Who created the account or article or captured the original content?
Meeting: When was it created?
Localization: Where was the account established, the website created or part of the captured content?
Motivation: Why was the account created, the website created or the content captured?
As with SIFT, there is no need to zoom in on the video or the image itself; instead of, you magnify Outside to judge your context in the real world. What it will not only give you tips on whether it is real, but it will help you think about why it exists and who can benefit from it being shared.
Many of us already uses these techniques, of course. For a perfect example, see this piece Lifehacker, where Nick Douglas investigated the supposed trend of hipsters using tiny handkerchiefs around his ankles. The image was a photoshop, but the truth is that if you follow the links (provenance), you will see that it came from an Italian website (source) that publishes humor articles (motivation). It was never a real trend.
The SIFT and Pillars techniques work just as well for fake and mislabeled news images as for silly stories about ankle scarves. (Remember when we talked about those “breaking news” accounts on social media that disinformation–sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose –linking it to current events?) Deepfakes and shallows are out there, and you can spot them without any special training – just your common sense, if you decide to use it.