facial mapping technology, dumbfakes can be
made simply by varying the speed of video or
selective editing. They are easier to create and can
be convincing to an unsuspecting viewer, which
makes them a much more immediate worry.
A slowed-down video of House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi that made her appear impaired garnered
more than 2 million views on Facebook in May.
In November, then-White House Press Secretary
Sarah Sanders tweeted a sped-up video of CNN
reporter Jim Acosta that made him look more
aggressive than he was during an exchange
with an intern. Her post received thousands
of retweets.
The fact that these videos are made so easily
and then widely shared across social media
platforms does not bode well for 2020, said Hany
Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University
of California, Berkeley.
“The clock is ticking,” Farid said. “The Nancy
Pelosi video was a canary in a coal mine.”
Social media companies don’t have clear-
cut policies banning fake videos, in part
because they don’t want to be in the position
of deciding whether something is satire
or intended to mislead people — or both.
Doing so could also open them to charges of
censorship or political bias.
Facebook, however, will “downrank” false or
misleading posts — including videos — so that
fewer people will see them. Such material will also
be paired with fact checks produced by outside
organizations, including The Associated Press.
There are also vast gray areas depending on
political affiliation or your sense of humor.
One social media user who calls himself Paul
Lee Ticks— a play on the word “politics”— often
makes fabricated videos, mostly of President
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