Hello hello, we are back with Sunday Rundown #22 in the midst of a pandemic. Stuck at home, a little overfed by everything there is to consume, and I do not mean just food and drinks but also content on the internet, we are faced with writing another rundown.
Facebook to ban ‘deepfakes’
Starting Sunday Rundown #22 with a bang. I mean ban. 🙂
Unless you live without internet, you surely know what a ‘deepfake’ video is. This technology that allows manipulating videos is a danger to us all and the communities we live in. So it is good that the internet giants are trying to stop this in its relatively early phase.
Facebook says they will remove videos if it had been edited in ways that weren’t obvious to an average person, or if it misled a viewer into thinking that a person in a video said words they did not actually say. The new policy will not apply to parody or satire videos.
Do you really want to watch boring videos?
But if we stop the development of videos, at least in the abovementioned context, who would want to watch boring videos of how people spend their time in lockdown? Well, according to a research from Google, we all do. Okay, they are not exactly boring videos, they are “with me” videos. 🙂
YouTube’s data research from last year shows that these “with me” videos are trending all over the world, no matter the age difference. If you think about it, these videos show that they really are effective when it comes to how they influence our everyday life and behaviour.
Who benefits from health misinformation?
One of the hardest questions in the process of stopping of misinformation, is exactly this one – Who benefits from health misinformation? Even if finding the answer seems impossible, there is always one. All that is required is good research and analysis. There is always someone who profits from misinformation, even in hard times like these.
New habits
It is clear that all of us change our habits under the influence of lockdown and other not-so-good changes. But here are two links that might help things make a little bit clearer.
COVID-19 Consumer Impact Tracker, do not ask how the ukulele is on top of the list. Seriously, do not do that!
Comscore regularly updates their statistics on the usage of different types of services and website. This is just one of their reports and if you want to be kept in the loop, you have to subscribe.
Technology is the solution to stopping coronavirus
Unfortunately, the actions against coronavirus have opened the doors for many governments to cut back on democracy. Below are two links that analyse which governments (and how) they are trying to use technology to track the location of its citizens with the hopes of stopping the spreading of the virus.
Palantir in Talks With Germany, France for Virus-Fighting Tool – Bloomberg
How Russia is using authoritarian tech to curb coronavirus – CNN
Bonus links
- Disinformation and propaganda during the coronavirus pandemic -DW
- Coronavirus round-up: authoritarian governments flex their muscles, paywalls on vital news, and different types of misinfo – Journalism Festival
- Creative Trends 2020 (pdf) – Envato
- Some Silicon Valley Companies Are Booming as COVID-19 Rages – govtech.com
- Five Ways to Be a Strong Leader in Disruptive Times – prophet.com
- Serbian Govt Takes Control of Information Flow About Pandemic – BalkanInsight
- Zoom meetings aren’t end-to-end encrypted – TechRadar
Thanks for taking the time to read our Sunday Rundown #22. If you have a story that you want to see in this series, reply to us below or contact us.