How YouTube erased history in its battle against white supremacy
Elizabeth Dwoskin, June 13th 2019, Washington Post
Last week, YouTube launched a crackdown on white supremacists and purveyors of hoaxes. It took down thousands of videos and channels that featured Holocaust denial and promoted Nazi ideologies.
Top AI researchers race to detect ‘deepfake’ videos: ‘We are outgunned’
Drew Harwell, June 12th 2019, Washington Post
Top artificial-intelligence researchers across the country are racing to defuse an extraordinary political weapon: computer-generated fake videos that could undermine candidates and mislead voters during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Europe is starting to tackle disinformation. The U.S. is lagging.
Alina Polyakova and Daniel Fried, June 17th 2019, Washington Post
Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election woke up Americans to the threat of disinformation, especially from Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But almost three years and many more interference campaigns later, the United States still lags in responding to malign foreign influence in the information space.
Biden says he won’t use bots, disinformation, deepfakes
Amy Wang, June 14th 2019, Washington Post
Former vice president Joe Biden on Friday pledged not to use illicit campaign tactics or spread disinformation in his run for the presidency, and called on other candidates to do the same.
Silicon Valley’s congressman wants tech companies to collaborate on disinformation
Cat Zakrzewski, June 12th 2019, Washington Post
Just like banks work together to share data about common types of fraud, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) says it’s time for Silicon Valley to have an equivalent alliance to share disinformation threats, as well as about hate speech and inflammatory content. Right now, he says a bad actor could be kicked off Facebook and just go open an account on Twitter. He wants to make sure the lines of communication are open among technology companies so they can have a more coordinated response to malicious actors.
E.U.: Russians interfered in our elections, too
Michael Birnbaum and Craig Timberg, June 14th 2019, Washington Post
Russia conducted a “continued and sustained” disinformation campaign against Europe’s recent parliamentary elections, the European Union reported Friday, the latest sign that Russia’s high-tech efforts to influence democratic votes have not slowed down.
‘Deepfakes’ called new election threat, with no easy fix
Susannah George, June 13th 2019, Associated Press in the Washington Post
“Deepfake” videos pose a clear and growing threat to America’s national security, lawmakers and experts say. The question is what to do about it, and that’s not easily answered.
Experts: Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets
Raphael Satter, June 13th 2019, Associated Press in the Washington Post.
Katie Jones sure seemed plugged into Washington’s political scene. The 30-something redhead boasted a job at a top think tank and a who’s-who network of pundits and experts, from the centrist Brookings Institution to the right-wing Heritage Foundation. She was connected to a deputy assistant secretary of state, a senior aide to a senator and the economist Paul Winfree, who is being considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve.
Twitter deletes accounts linked to foreign governments
Associated Press, June 13th 2019, Washington Post
Twitter says it has deleted nearly 4,800 suspect accounts linked to Iran that the company says secretly pushed that government’s agenda.