Disinformation — that is, content that is deliberately misleading for political or economic gain — is nothing new. But as we've seen in the last year, digital platforms have made it easier to spread dangerous conspiracy theories, as apparently false information on hot topics like the pandemic, racial protests, California wildfires and presidential election results has spread at breakneck speed. and spread the influence.

Adding fuel to the fire is the emergence of deepfakes: highly convincing (yet downright fraudulent) audio, photo and video content, created by artificial intelligence, that has the potential to cost businesses tens of millions of dollars. And that’s before taking into account the less quantifiable but equally important human impacts of technology-driven disinformation on society as a whole.

The news is that while technology has caused the problem, new technologies — specifically blockchain — also offer a potential solution to the growing threat of digital disinformation.

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Blockchain has great potential

Blockchain systems record information using a decentralized, immutable ledger that is constantly verified and re-verified by every party using it, making it nearly impossible to change information after it has been created.

One of the most famous applications of blockchain is managing the transfer of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. But blockchain’s ability to provide decentralized verification and a clear chain of custody makes it a potentially effective tool for tracking not just financial resources, but various forms of content as well.

Part of what makes combating deepfakes and other types of disinformation so difficult is that today, there are no consistent standards or best practices for identifying, flagging, tracking, and responding to manipulated media across digital platforms.

By increasing the transparency of the content lifecycle, blockchain can provide a mechanism to restore trust in our digital ecosystem. Specifically, there are three main ways that blockchain-based solutions can address the problems posed by these new forms of digital disinformation, which Maoqiu Technology organizes as follows:

• verify source

The first way blockchain can be used to combat disinformation is to track and verify the provenance and other critical information of online media. Publications could use blockchain to create a registry for all images they publish, allowing anyone to verify information such as title, location, consent to be photographed, copyright ownership and other metadata.

The New York Times, for example, is exploring this approach with their News Sources project, which uses blockchain to track metadata such as the provenance and editing of news photos, giving readers better context and understanding when content was created and Way.

Likewise, photo and video authentication company Truepic notarizes content on the bitcoin and ethereum blockchains to establish a chain of custody from capture to storage.

Of course, different applications have different requirements and types of associated metadata, but in general, blockchain provides a mechanism to verify the origin of content and how it may have been processed on its digital journey to the end consumer. manipulate.

In addition, as researchers and technologists develop deepfake technology for non-malicious applications such as educational videos, movies, and interactive artwork, they can use blockchain to track who has accessed their algorithms and verify the individuals depicted in the training images Do you agree to let them use the images. This is especially important for open source projects, where the tools are so readily available that the risk of abuse increases.

• Maintain online identity and reputation

Publishers have traditionally been the primary source of content reputation. If you find an article in The New York Times or Harvard Business Review, you're more likely to trust it to be accurate than on a site you haven't heard of.

However, relying solely on the reputation of the underlying institution has significant limitations. Data show that people's trust in the mainstream media in the United States is lower than ever, according to a new poll: 69% of American adults say their trust in the news media has declined in the past decade .

Worse, in a digital media environment driven by click-based advertising revenue, even reputable publications are increasingly incentivized to prioritize engagement over clarity.

When readers get their news largely from social media headlines, it severely hinders their ability to distinguish credible news organizations from profit-driven propaganda machines.

This is where blockchain can help. A blockchain-based system can both verify the identity of content creators and track their reputation for accuracy, essentially eliminating the need for a trusted centralized authority.

For example, according to a recent paper outlining a proposal for a system in which content creators and journalists can build reputation scores outside of the specific medium they write about, a decentralized approach to verifying sources, editorial history, and other digital content.

Additionally, blockchain can be used to track the distribution of content, allowing both consumers and publishers to better understand where disinformation comes from and how it spreads throughout the digital ecosystem.

Of course, as with any type of reputation tracking system, there are important questions to consider about who sets the standards, who participates in the ratings, and who manages disputes. Additionally, any system designed to track and verify personal information will need to incorporate privacy and security oversight to meet local and international regulatory requirements.

That said, the decentralized nature of blockchain solutions may help address many of these issues, as it removes the need for a single trusted authority to make these critical decisions.

• Incentivize premium content

Finally, one of the most challenging aspects of promoting accurate information in the current media environment is that creators and communicators are strongly incentivized to drive clicks at all costs, which often come from sensational content.

For example, there was news about Macedonian teens in 2016 who made tens of thousands of dollars from pay-per-click ads on disinformation articles shared on right-wing Facebook groups.

While ad networks like Google have pledged to do more to combat misinformation and disinformation, they're still "grading their homework" — and they have little reason to stop the flow of cash.

However, smart contracts built on the blockchain provide a mechanism to automatically pay for content verified against predetermined quality standards.

For example, blockchain startup Civil incentivized journalistic accuracy in 2017 by financially compensating users for publishing accurate information in cryptocurrency and charging them fees when they failed to meet community standards.

While the company eventually folded, a number of new startups like Nwzer and Pressland have emerged in recent years, aiming to support citizens and independent journalists by removing barriers to distribution and leveraging blockchain to verify the accuracy and integrity of news content .

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But it's not a panacea

While blockchain has great potential to enable greater accuracy and transparency, there is nothing trustworthy about the technology itself — at its core, blockchain knowledge is a mechanism of record.

With blockchains, it is up to the communities using these platforms to determine how content is added to the ledger, how it is verified, and what incentives are in place to create and maintain that trust.

If users don't trust the majority to record and verify new contributors, then it will be back to square one. No technology can fully address the potential challenge of building trust between people, nor remove the underlying motivations of the humans who drive disinformation in the first place to pursue profit and political gain.

Furthermore, even if we assume that most users are well-intentioned, it is another matter entirely to assume that they have the time and ability to validate the vast amount of content that is produced every day. How many of the source links contained in the text have you actually opened so far? Not to mention stopping to read the full content.

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Tackling disinformation requires more than technology

In terms of policy, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the DEEP FAKES Accountability Act in 2019, proposing the use of blockchain to verify origin, watermarks, content creators, and other relevant information.

The European Union also proposed a series of regulations governing how companies use artificial intelligence earlier this year, and some states have enacted laws regulating the use of deepfakes, mostly related to elections and deepfake pornography.

Of course, any policy-driven effort must balance regulation with privacy and freedom of expression. Given these issues and the rapid pace of technological development, practical policy solutions must focus on regulating malicious behavior and mitigating harm, rather than developing comprehensive technology regulations.

At the same time, the private sector will increasingly find itself in the role of arbiter and regulator of information as more and more information is disseminated through private social networks and channels rather than government-controlled entities.

Many major social media companies, such as Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, have limited policies in place related to manipulated media, but they have been far less consistent in developing and enforcing broader policies around disinformation, and they often on the importance of free speech.

Additionally, while the conversation around content control has largely focused on internet and social media companies, disinformation and deepfakes are a threat to every industry, so every organization must adopt policies that protect themselves, their customers, and their interests Stakeholders are protected from digital disinformation.

Ultimately, effectively implementing policies and technologies to address these new threats begins with a good understanding of the threats themselves. This is not a problem we can blame solely on IT.

All levels of government, businesses and individuals in every function must invest in media literacy programs to educate themselves and their teams on how digital manipulation technologies work and how to effectively prepare for them.