Today, the popular social networking site TikTok is hosting a river of fake videos by what is known as “deepfake”.

A deep fake can digitally modify a person's face or body to make them look like someone else, usually a famous person.


A prominent TikTok account @deeptomcriuse has already posted dozens of fake videos impersonating Tom Cruise, which have garnered 3.6 million followers.

Other examples of deepfakes show Mark Zuckerberg - the founder and CEO of the social networking site Facebook and his parent company Meta - admitting to conspiring to share users' data.

There are recent examples of actors such as Robert Pattinson and Keanu Reeves.

different roles

Although deepfakes are often used to produce creative works or for entertainment, they are becoming increasingly common in disinformation campaigns, identity fraud, and in the defamation of public figures and celebrities.

As the technology to produce these fakes is so sophisticated and complex, it is becoming increasingly available, leaving detection programs and laws behind them.

One thing is for sure about it: deepfakes are here to stay, so what do we do about them?

According to the report published by The Conversation, the manipulation of texts and images has always been the cornerstone of attracting interaction and attention.

Deep forgery is no exception.

It reflects people's deep-seated desires to participate in culture, storytelling and art.

Deep fakes can produce original works by deceased actors, as if resurrecting them in new, original works.

It may play a role in comforting people who have lost loved ones.

@deeptomcruise

High and tigh then… eyebrows ✂️ #footloose

♬ Footloose – Kenny Loggins

Disadvantages of deep fake

Deepfake techniques can cause many problems, including social problems such as:

• Use it as evidence of any fake news or misleading information.

• Use them to discredit persons.

• Causing social or political conflict as a result of its ability to produce media whose authenticity is difficult to detect.

• Its use in the production of fake pornography.

The last point is of particular concern, as Deeprace's software for detecting deepfakes showed - in 2019 - that 96% of the total 14,000 cases of deepfakes were of a pornographic nature.

A free app, now removed called DeepNude 2.0, was able to reveal women's clothes to show them naked.

This application was used either for the purpose of revenge or to blackmail the victims.

In Australia, some perpetrators managed to get around “revenge porn” laws, using deepfakes;

This is an issue that is expected to become more serious in the coming days.

The development of deepfake applications will enable people to produce more fake photos (Shutterstock)

growing anxiety

In addition, deep fake techniques are used in identity fraud, especially in the form of video messages that reach people as if they were from a "colleague" or a "relative" asking for money.

One study revealed that identity fraud - using digital manipulation - cost US financial institutions $20 billion in 2020.

The makers of deepfake clips claim that it takes a lot of time and effort to make them look realistic.

"It's not just a single click," said Chris Ohm, creator of the fake Tom Cruise account on TikTok, as he told The Verge.

However, there is new evidence that deepfakes are getting easier.

Researchers at the United Nations Global Pulse show that speeches can be faked in just 13 minutes.

As more applications of deepfake develop, unskilled people will be able to produce more and more authentic-looking fakes.

With the development of deepfake applications, it will be easier to produce authentic looking fake photos (Shutterstock)

The need for governing legislation

It is noteworthy that the Facebook platform has been criticized for its failure in 2019 to remove a fake video clip of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, some of the platform's failure to distinguish it as fake.

In 2020, Twitter banned the sharing of synthetic media that deceives, misleads or harms people (other than adding only logos or tags to those media).

Tik Tok has done the same.

YouTube also banned deepfakes related to the 2020 US election.

Even if these policies are good, the response to reports calling for the removal of deepfakes will not be fast enough.

And these policies are triggered quickly when protecting celebrities and politicians, while they fall short of protecting ordinary people from deepfakes.

@real_robert

Did you guess any of the moves?

#pattinson #neverletthemknowyournextmove #nextmovechallenge

♬ original sound – Unreal Robert Pattinson

Deep fake detection

People today must equip themselves with as many skills as they can detect deepfakes.

There are questions whose answers may help you judge this, including:

• Is the face smooth in this way?

Are there shadows for the cheekbones out of place?

• Do eyelid and mouth movements seem unrelated or abnormal in some way or another?

• Does the hair - especially facial hair - look fake?

It is difficult for current deep fake techniques to maintain the original appearance of hair (particularly facial hair).

• Ask yourself about the message that the person sends: is it to disavow vaccinations, for example, or is it a pornographic clip?

Anything that appears unusual, normal, or contradicts collective knowledge is usually related to deepfakes.