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The Oversight Board of Facebook’s parent company Meta urged the organization to swiftly revise its policy on deep fake videos as the election approaches.
The call to action came after the board ruled a doctored video of Joe Biden could remain on the platform. According to the board’s decision, a loophole in the company’s “incoherent” policies blocked the video’s removal.
CNN reporting indicates the video was edited to suggest Biden inappropriately touched a young woman. In reality, the original, un-doctored video simply shows Biden putting an ‘I Voted’ sticker on his granddaughter’s shirt.
Facebook Board ruling
Despite its falsified content, the video doesn’t directly violate Facebook’s rules. That’s because it depicts an altered version of actions a person (Biden) took, rather than showing him in a situation that never occurred (also known as a deep fake)
According to the oversight board, Meta’s policy treats deep fakes differently than other altered content. That policy, the board said, should be reconsidered quickly to prevent doctored content being released to try and influence voters.
“Meta… needs to make revisions quickly, given the record number of elections in 2024.”
The Facebook board says the current policy is “inappropriately focused” on how content is created. Instead, policy around doctored content should focus on “which specific harms it aims to prevent (for example, to electoral processes).”
Misinformation and doctored video content pose threat to democracy as 2024 election approaches
According to CNN, the Biden campaign also took aim at Meta’s policy, calling it “nonsensical and dangerous, particularly given the stakes of this election for our democracy.”
Ahead of the 2024 election, many scholars and analysts agree that misinformation poses a significant threat to American democracy.
The spread of misinformation online reached a fever pitch in 2020, and ultimately helped lead to the January 6th insurrection.
With less than nine months until Election Day, many are urging social media groups to move quickly to hinder its spread this year.