Two days before Facebook is set to appear in front of lawmakers at a House Energy and Commerce hearing on manipulated media, the social network has announced it’s banning all forms of deepfakes. The announcement represents a significant step forward for Facebook, which has been struggling to mend its ailing image with the 2020 presidential election right around the corner.
In a blog post, Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of global policy management, said the company will take down videos that have been “edited or synthesized in ways that aren’t apparent to an average person” or are the “product of artificial intelligence or machine learning that merges, replaces or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic.”
However, the policy doesn’t apply to parodies, satire, or clips “that has been edited solely to omit or change the order of words.” This means it also doesn’t apply to awidely viewed doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as it’s not forged by A.I. and instead, is merely the result of readily available speech software.
In addition to keeping an eye on A.I.-generated content, Bickert says Facebook is also “partnering with academia, government, and industry to expose people behind these efforts.”
As A.I. tech continues to advance, deepfakes — most of which are nearly impossible to identify — have emerged as one of the most critical challenges for governments and platforms. With a looming presidential election, companies have scrambled to come up with ways to crack down on and spot deepfake videos at scale. In November, Twitter also announced a new draft for deepfake policies, although it has yet to come into effect.
Unlike its peers, Facebook has been in the public crosshairs as it refuses to ban and fact-check political ads.
Last month, a number of organizations and companies including Facebook, Microsoft, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, and more joined hands to launch the Deepfake Detection Challenge, which aims to catalyze the development in deepfake detection through large data sets, awards, and research grants.
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
I have lost count of how many times I have gone to bed thinking I will finally sleep on time, only to somehow end up scrolling Instagram or X again. A few minutes turn into an hour, then another, and before I notice, it is 2 or 3 a.m. The next morning, I am usually annoyed with myself because I could have just slept and felt considerably better for the day ahead.
It is also a surprisingly hard habit to beat. Knowing you should put the phone down does not always help once it is already in your hand. Brick Night is a new gadget built around that exact problem. Instead of relying on you to remember to turn on an app blocker, it automatically restricts selected apps and websites when your phone enters your chosen sleep space during the hours you set.