T.J. Thomson, Queensland University of Technology; Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology, and Paula Dootson, Queensland University of Technology
In an age of democracy via social media, platforms are struggling to combat visual mis/disinformation such as ‘spliced’ images and deepfakes. Digital media literacy has never been so important.
It’s easy to edit video of public figures to make them appear asleep, confused, drunk or cognitively impaired when they are not. The technique is being used to undermine Joe Biden’s campaign.
Twitter’s proposed policy would result in the prolific spread of fabricated, but highly realistic images and videos. This could allow widespread misinformation on the platform.
As our societies lose paper trails and increasingly rely on digital information, historians, and their grasps of context, will become more important than ever.