Welcome to Thursday, September 5th, Kleenexers and handkerchiefs...

Can you believe your eyes and ears?

Countable is compiling a dossier on all the issues that may affect the 2020 election, answering your questions and concerns about what to expect on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020.

We're calling the series "Foresight 2020". And we begin with "deepfakes."

Deepfakes are videos, images, and audio that use artificial intelligence (AI) to create false evidence of people saying or doing things that they actually didn’t do. Like President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un fist-bumping:

Deepfake videos of candidates will pose a threat during the 2020 election, according a September 2019 report by New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

The report - Disinformation and the 2020 Election: How the Social Media Should Prepare - predicts that deepfakes will be unleashed across the media landscape "to portray candidates saying and doing things they never said or did" and, as a result, "unwitting Americans could be manipulated into participating in real-world rallies and protests."

Are you worried about deepfakes in the 2020 election?

On the Radar

The Cost of Hurricanes

The National Hurricane Center on Wednesday updated its forecast for Hurricane Dorian to warn of “life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds” from Palm Coast, Florida, to Hampton Roads, Virginia, through Friday. 

The two deadliest natural disasters in recent U.S. history were both hurricanes: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana and surrounding areas in 2005 while Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. This chart from USAFacts shows the death toll from natural disasters in recent decades, which spiked in those years:

Additionally, seven of the 10 most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history (including the top six) were hurricanes.

Should Congress invest in projects to mitigate future storm damage?

Under the Radar

Unsolicited Nudes Soliciting Fines

Snap a d*** pic and send it to your new Tinder match? That’s a Class-C misdemeanor, BigHoustonRocket69.

A new Texas law makes it illegal to send unsolicited explicit photos via social media, dating apps, text messaging, and email. Violators can be hit with a maximum fine of $500.

A 2018 study by the dating app Bumble found that one in three women have received unsolicited lewd photos from strangers online, with 96% reporting they were not happy about it.

“Lately, it feels like men and women are being told that this increasingly common problem is really no big deal,” said Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of Bumble. “Women in particular are expected to laugh this sort of thing off, but there’s nothing funny about it.”

“If indecent exposure is a crime on the streets, then why is it not on your phone or your computer?” Herd said.

J.T. Morris, an Austin-based attorney told the Texas Tribune that difficulties may arise if an accused sender claims he/she did not send the lewd message. Morris said that emailing a doctor an image for medical purposes or posting a breastfeeding photo could be considered criminal acts under the law.

Should unsolicited nude pics be illegal?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should the U.S. Adopt a No First Use Policy for Nuclear Weapons?