It's a brave new world.
Welcome to what is likely to be the Fake News/Russian Election Interference 2.0.
Fareed Zakaria shows how using facial recognition algorithms, it is possible to create completely believable doctored videos, where they can make politicians or anyone saying anything they want.
It is beyond frightening to imagine what will come up. We have people on the right AND the left willing to believe that the DNC is some omnipotent malevolent force willing to conspire to cover up a murder of a DNC employee or form a child sex ring in the non-existent basement of a Georgetown pizza parlor--and that came from the fevered swamp that is right wing social media and made viral by bot shops in Macedonia.
What will they do if someone posts a video that clearly shows whomever is the Democratic candidate admitting any number of crimes or misdeeds? How many people will have the sophistication or energy to determine if it's real?
While the Trump administration has conflated the term "fake news" with anything that is negative towards them, the reality is that fake news has deeply infected our dialog and made it difficult for many to ascertain the truth, which is a state of chaos that can only be appreciated by Vladimir Putin.
On the bobblehead thread this morning, I bemoaned how little has been done to try to deal with the massive level of disinformation out there. This should show just how imperative we address this issue (and administrators of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter as well) immediately. It's not hyperbole to say that democracy itself depends on it.
