Manipulated videos where people appear to say or do something they have not said or done - so-called deepfakes - have become an increasingly common phenomenon on the Internet.

Real or not?

The technology behind these videos is advanced, is developing at a rapid pace and means that we can no longer trust that the moving image is really authentic, something that the Cultural News has previously reported.

It also poses a major challenge for established media as it can be used to convey false information. On Monday, Facebook announced that in 2020 they will work on removing videos and images that are "misleading and manipulated" from the platform.

"Big challenge"

Under Facebook's new policy, a video can be deleted based on the following two criteria: that AI or other machine learning has been used to put together or replace content in a video so that it appears authentic or that the video has been edited in ways that are not sufficiently clear and thus be deceptive.

"Although these videos are still uncommon on the Internet, they pose a significant challenge to our industry and our society as usage increases," Facebook writes in a blog post. Satir videos will not be covered by the new social media giant policy.