Plumi is pondering what kind of contributions we could make to address the spread of “deep fake” video and disinformation (“fake news”) via video-sharing and social media platforms.
Technologies such as cryptographic hashing and/or the blockchain can indicate if video source material has been tampered with, and display symbols and signs to indicate if it has been.
This is obviously challenging, as you need to allow for such things as the use of archival footage in a documentary (which is a key element of the format), re-edits (which are common) and of course video re-mix genres.
The flexibility to allow hashing without permission from the authors, and also how to include and display verified signatures from (authorising) authors, are also some of the problems to be solved.
Video on the internet, for journalistic, advocacy or academic purposes, will need to be designed with this in mind going forward to have any veracity.
Some of the research/projects available currently:
