Simon Thibault, a professor at the University of Montreal and an expert on fake news, stated that before the internet, it was difficult to create fake content because it required a lot of resources, but now anyone can easily spread 'fake news'.
In an interview with the Lusa news agency, Thibault said that before the emergence of the internet, "a lot of resources were needed to make fake news go viral", using the Cold War as an example, when fake news was used, for example, to "destabilize enemies". "A fake news story about HIV [Human Immunodeficiency Virus] having been created in a laboratory was first published in an obscure media outlet, with links to the KGB [secret services of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - USSR].
It then appeared in Moscow, in some African countries, a bit in Europe, and finally in the United States", he explained. And this process "was seen as a great success, because the fake news managed to reach the American public through a 'mainstream', but it was a fake story thought up, conducted and produced by the KGB", he said. In this case, "the virality of this fake news took a long time and required a lot of resources" and now with the internet, social media and artificial intelligence (AI) this virality is easy to achieve, the expert argued.
In the current scenario "we can have young people spreading fake news, not because they believe in Trump, not because they want to influence the elections, they are doing it for money (...) and with AI this is becoming even easier", explained Simon Thibault, referring to it being a "complex environment".
"We can have citizens who spread disinformation for money, others for fun and many other reasons, geostrategic, political, economic, ideological and that is why the ecosystem is very complex", he mentioned.
Furthermore, the researcher highlighted that the concept of disinformation "means that the person spreading false content knows that it is false and intentionally wants to misinform their audience", as opposed to the concept of 'misinformation' (incorrect information in Portuguese) in which false content is shared "without the intention of misinforming".
To spread false content, all you need is "good software and it is possible to do it yourself, and now generative artificial intelligence [Gen AI] helps to create articles and amplify them", he explained.
Despite this, Simon Thibault said that "from a Canadian perspective, Europe is being arbitrary in terms of regulating the big platforms", saying that "the European Union (EU) is always seen as an arbitrary body, which will regulate, while innovation and money are coming from the United States", mentioning the Digital Services Act (DSA) that has been in force since February 17, 2024 and has as its main mission to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation. In this sense, the researcher also said that, if Europe "is only thinking about regulatory approximation, then the US and China will take the lead and Europe will fall behind".
The fact that AI is a "quite recent phenomenon, but one that raises many concerns", means that the "scientific literature is quite limited" on this subject, pointed out the professor, warning of the risks associated with social networks, particularly through "deepfake" videos. Simon Thibault also explained that the term 'fake news' became relevant in 2016, when Donald Trump was elected to the US presidential elections, as "one of the first explanations put forward by media commentators was that Trump won because of fake news".
The researcher concluded by saying that media education, support for journalism and regulation are essential to combat these phenomena.
No comments:
Post a Comment