Yesterday, I watched a video by Vox tiĀ­tled ā€˜The most urĀ­gent threat of deepĀ­fakes isĀ­nā€™t polĀ­iĀ­tics.ā€™ It got me thinkĀ­ing about how much we post our soĀ­cial life onĀ­line and how easĀ­ily it can be misĀ­used.

From the video deĀ­scripĀ­tion, emĀ­phaĀ­sis mine:

Deepfakes are ofĀ­ten porĀ­trayed as a poĀ­litĀ­iĀ­cal threat ā€” fake videos of politiĀ­cians makĀ­ing comĀ­ments they never made. But in a reĀ­cent reĀ­port, the reĀ­search group Deeptrace found that 96% of deepĀ­fakes found onĀ­line are pornoĀ­graphic. Of those videos, virĀ­tuĀ­ally all are of women. And virĀ­tuĀ­ally all are made withĀ­out their conĀ­sent.

When I post my imĀ­ages onĀ­line, I open up GIMP, crop 1:1 the reĀ­quired porĀ­tion of the imĀ­age, scale it down to 200x200 pixĀ­els (or 250x250 pixĀ­els if the upĀ­load tarĀ­get comĀ­plaints), strip all metaĀ­data, and save it at 50% to 100% qualĀ­ity deĀ­pendĀ­ing on where Iā€™m postĀ­ing the imĀ­age. Itā€™s exĀ­tra work for sure, but I feel a litĀ­tle safer onĀ­line. Perhaps there might be a simĀ­ple way to do this from the terĀ­miĀ­nal usĀ­ing imĀ­agemagĀ­ick, but since I usuĀ­ally crop as well, I preĀ­fer usĀ­ing a GUI.

I wonĀ­der if it helps ļ¬ght the alĀ­goĀ­rithms beĀ­hind deepĀ­fakes at all or if itā€™s just a false sense of seĀ­cuĀ­rity.