This Bill Hader Deepfake Video Is Amazing. It's Also Terrifying for Our Future.

Sharon Bradford Franklin is quoted in Popular Mechanics' coverage of deepfake videos. Franklin highlights both the threat deepfakes pose to public discourse, and the risk of constraining free expression in a well-intentioned attempt to stop them.

While advances in deepfake technology could help spot deepfakes, it may be too late. Once trust is corroded in a technology, it’s nearly impossible to bring it back. If we corrupt one’s faith in video, then how long until faith is lost in the news on television, in the clips on the Internet, or in live-streamed historic events?

“Deepfake videos threaten our civic discourse and can cause serious reputational and psychic harm to individuals,” says Sharon Bradford Franklin, Policy Director for New America’s Open Technology Institute. “They also make it even more challenging for platforms to engage in responsible moderation of online content.”

“While the public is understandably calling for social media companies to develop techniques to detect and prevent the spread of deepfakes,” she continues, “we must also avoid establishing legal rules that will push too far in the opposite direction, and pressure platforms to engage in censorship of free expression online.”