On March 16, 2022, a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
calling upon Ukrainian troops to surrender surfaced on several social m


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Tech & Terrorism: Deepfake May Be “Tip Of The Iceberg” In Russia’s
Disinformation Campaign

 

(New York, N.Y.) — On March 16, 2022, a deepfake video of Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling upon Ukrainian troops to surrender surfaced on
several social media platforms and was placed on a Ukrainian news website by
hackers. Ukrainian authorities had warned about the possibility of Russia using
manipulated videos in its disinformation campaign and according to Counter
Extremism Project (CEP) Senior Advisor and University of California, Berkeley
professor Dr. Hany Farid, the video may be “the tip of the iceberg
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.”

 

Dr. Farid has previously explained the potentially catastrophic effect
deepfakes could have in the real world if left unchecked by tech companies.

 

In 2020, Dr. Farid participated in the joint CEP and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
(KAS)Webinar On The Threat Of Deep Fakes To Democracy And Society
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highlighted the threat deepfakes pose to national security, using the example
that someone could create a video that makes it appear a country is launching a
nuclear attack. If this were to happen, tech companies would only have minutes
to react before the video created sufficient harm, demonstrating the very real
and world-altering threat deepfakes pose—especially in war time.

 

Tech companies much remain vigilant and actively work to keep deepfakes and
misinformation off their sites. Moreover, the industry must take responsibility
and be held accountable when fake information is posted and permitted to spread
on their platforms. In 2019, Dr. Faridemphasized
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“On the one hand, you can blame the Russians if we want. We can blame the
people who are trying to make money off of the ads on fake news. But at the end
of the day, I think that’s the wrong place to place blame. Blame has to be with
the social media companies that are designed to promote this material, and they
know they’re doing it. I don’t think YouTube wants to promote conspiracies, but
the algorithms are designed to promote the sensational, to promote the
outrageous and to promote the things that get you to click and to engage with
content.”

 

To watch CEP’s Webinar: On The Threat Of Deep Fakes To Democracy And Society,
please clickhere <[link removed]>.  

 

To watch CEP’s video series Fake News, please click here
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.

 

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