Fortify the Truth
How to Defend Human Rights in an Age of Deepfakes and Generative AI
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12930343 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sam Gregory (0000-0003-2718-5431, Witness, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 702-714 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-06 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Human Rights Practice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1757-9619 • E-ISSN: 1757-9627 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jhuman/huad035 |
| OpenAlex | W4386475157 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 6 |
Audiovisual digital media and tools are critical elements in contemporary human rights documentation and advocacy. Generative AI, deepfakes and synthetic media compound questions of what to trust in an existing situation of government suppression, difficulty proving witness accounts and broader societal challenges to trust. There is a need to ‘fortify the truth’ by fostering resilient witnessing practices that can ensure trustworthy videos and strengthen narratives of vulnerable communities. The author identifies and speculates on actions at tactical, strategic, tools, technology, and policy levels, drawing upon human rights organization WITNESS’s work on proactive preparation for emerging technologies and technical infrastructures. Practical steps occur across a trajectory of using images and video in human rights advocacy and activism including filming, storytelling, watching, analysing, sharing, advocacy, and preservation. Guidance on filming must evolve to address deepfakes and opportunities and challenges in ‘authenticity infrastructure’. Narrative video advocacy and formal legal and policy processes must adapt to new technologies including text-to-image and text-to-video, new disinformation threats such as ‘floods of falsehood’ and new presentation opportunities. The evolution of watching, scrutinizing, and sharing videos accountability amid increasing volume and normalized image manipulation includes positive dimensions of the ‘media forensic turn’, including collaborative ‘open-source intelligence’ verification, and negative aspects involving excessive scrutiny. Finally, preserving audiovisual media is critical, and emerging socio-technical infrastructure should be shaped for community control. Underlying principles for ‘fortifying the truth’ include taking a proactive approach, centring voices and needs of people facing human rights abuses, and working with and challenging technologists and technology companies
Government (linguistics · Human rights · Internet privacy · Narrative · New media · Political science · Public relations · Social media · Sociology · Storytelling · Witness · Archaeological Research and Protection · Computer Science · Law in Society and Culture · Law
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Misinformation reloaded? Fears about the impact of generative AI on misinformation are overblown
Comparative Insights on Social Media as an Atrocity Prevention Tool
Futures of Deepfake and society
Mapping the Scholarly Landscape on AI and Diplomacy
Gaza and the rise of synthetic militarism
Generative AI in the screen and live performance industries
| Citations per year | 2.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |