Even Knowing Fake Zuckerberg Video, Instagram Doesn’t Plan To Remove It

A couple of recent days, Instagram users have spread a fake video that shows the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is talking about controlling users’ stolen data. The secret behind it is an artificial technology called “deepfake” allowing users to create realistic videos from images.

Two artists from the advertising firm Canny created this video to advertise for an UK-based documentary festival. “Imagine this for a second. One man with total control of billions of people's stolen data. All their secrets, their lives, their futures. I owe it all to Spectre. Spectre showed me that whoever controls the data, controls the future.” Says the fake Mark Zuckerberg in the video.

The video creators include Daniel Howe and Bill Posters. They first shared this video on Bill’s Instagram account @bill_posters, and right after that, Vice reported it in the media.

When watching thoroughly, we can easily realize it is completely fake. Two of the clearest signs are Zuckerberg’s voice and movement of lips. However, it’s enough for us to know what deepfake technology can do at present.

As per Instagram, the company said to Business Insider that “We will treat this information the same way we treat all misinformation on Instagram. If third-party fact-checkers mark it as false, we will filter it from Instagram's recommendation surfaces like Explore and hashtag pages.”

In May 2019, the speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi appeared with a slurred and slowed-down speech on a Facebook video. The unknown creator didn’t use the deepfake technology to create this fake video. The real issue just came after Facebook didn’t have any intention to remove or ban it from its platforms, even when users kept sharing it widely. In fact, more and more deepfake videos have been spreading on the Internet, including comedy clips and pornographic videos in which celebrities’ faces are attached to other bodies.

At the beginning of 2019, a video suddenly appeared on Facebook and showed the former President Barack Obama insulting and cussing the current President Donald Trump. Its creators turned out being Jordan Peele (a US film-maker and comedian), his company Monkeypaw Productions and BuzzFeed. They did it with a hope to warn watchers about the risks caused by the deepfake technology.

The recent video of Spectre was made to emphasize how dangerous the technology can be. In an interview with Vice, the Canny cofounder Omer Ben-Ami said, “This will change the way we share and tell stories, remember our loved ones, and create content.” He also referred to the technology as “the next step in our digital evolution.”