By: Abby McGuire
“The only thing that separates America from communist China is that we have freedom.”
These were the words spurted out by Mark Zuckerberg while speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 21st. And it seems that he is determined to utilize that freedom–no matter if it means crossing the ethical boundaries within the media.
During his speech, he maintained his position that deepfakes were the future and that Meta is working to create safe, accessible deepfakes. However, he never elaborated on how Meta would do this and create equitable use of deepfakes. That’s because Meta doesn’t have a plan, and not even concepts of a plan, to create a safe, non-infringing way to use deepfakes– and it never will. By their very design, deepfakes are able to infiltrate all parts of society, from courtrooms to classrooms. There can never be a safe way to use deepfakes in social media because there is no good reason to use them–the intention to create them is either driven by laziness, a “funny” joke, or explicit imagery.
Let’s not be confused by his happy gestures and optimistic tone. Zuckerberg has clearly abandoned ethics for political and economic gain.
Meta’s overconfident embrace of deepfakes is indicative of a deeper problem within American media. This issue is a clear example of how political polarization has been infiltrating companies at an astonishing rate. In order to please the increasingly conservative legislature/executive branch, Zuckerberg deemed it appropriate to remove the AI fact-checkers from Meta’s platform. Conservatives, and now Zuckerberg, “realized” that these fact checkers were biased towards conservative media and were part of a liberal effort to debunk their (conservative) news.
However, the removal of these fact-checkers has made it possible for deepfakes and other AI-generated content to be more persuasive and trick viewers into believing that this imagined fantasy was reality.
But this was only the beginning.
Now, instead of simple toleration, Meta has graduated to full-on immersion, promoting deepfakes as the future of tech. Call me a pessimist, but to me, this seems like the beginning of a story I don’t want to finish.
“Social media prospers best when not infringed upon by the federal government,” Zuckerberg said. But what happens when the social media app decides that it’s time to slowly turn the tide towards a certain political party? Well, it seems like we are the audience and Meta is screaming on the stage.
Is there a solution? Obviously.
Media consumption is a conscious choice that is continually made by every single person on Earth. American citizens should just get their phones superglued to their palms because they never leave their hands.
But our hands aren’t superglued, and no matter what conspiracy theorists may say, there are no microchips buried in our brain tissue. We still have free will, and the ability to be our own actors and use it. So, what’s the solution to an increasingly toxic media environment? Simply turn off your phone. Power off your laptop. Take a break from watching broadcast news. Sign out (and even dare to delete apps) when you see the polarization happening before your eyes. When faced with intimidating political news that seems untrue- read an actual article by an accredited journalist. As long as the American public makes a conscious decision to be an informed citizen body, I am sure we can ride the tide of deepfakes.
