Face it, this is just the beginning
Have some money burning a hole in your pocket? You could always bid to buy the first tweet by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. For just a few million dollars, you could receive a certificate verifying the tweet, signed by Dorsey. Or you could just look at the tweet, which will still be publicly available (for free, btw).
In today's news:
Deepfakes are risky business
It's not an edit button, but we'll take it
Instagram explores private like options
And trending now: beards, ears and plants
Read on ⬇️
Risky business
I was scrolling through TikTok the other day (as usual), and came across a video of Tom Cruise. Or, at least I thought it was the Mission Impossible actor. But something made me pause. It looked like him. And sounded like him. But it was actually a fake, or more specifically, a deepfake. This tech is becoming increasingly more advanced, and more dangerous — particularly for women. Here's what you need to know.
That's deep
Visit the @deeptomcruise parody TikTok account, and you'll see "Tom" playing golf and making a coin disappear (ah, the irony of magic). But who you're actually watching is actor and Tom Cruise impersonator Miles Fisher, who partnered with VFX specialist Chris Ume to create the illusion. So, what exactly is a deepfake? Here's the definition according to Wikipedia: deepfakes are "synthetic media in which a person in an existing photo or video is replaced with someone else's likeness." Essentially, it's using artificial intelligence (AI) to turn a person into a puppet. It can copy visuals and audio. And while they can be used for fun, like cruising Cruise, there are some serious dangers.
The real danger Some may assume that the biggest danger is making a world leader appear to say or do something that they haven't. But there is research to suggest that revenge porn against women is the biggest threat. Suzie Dunn, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, recently wrote about how women are often the victims of this new form of gender-based violence. She cites a study that found that 96% of deepfakes were non-consensual sexual deepfakes, and almost all were of women. Female celebrities are often the target, particularly in the United States and South Korea. And while social media companies have banned the practice, says Dunn, most countries don't have any laws governing this. Don't dismiss this It can be easy to dismiss the dangers. In a recent interview with The Verge, the creator of the Tom Cruise videos (Ume) said he doesn't believe the public should be worried, saying the tech is very sophisticated and that it took weeks to create each video. However, there are other ways that deepfakes are being used to create content quickly and easily. Ancestry service MyHeritage released a deepfake technology that uses AI to bring departed loved ones back to life. Upload a picture, and the "Deep Nostalgia" tech will animate it to make it look as if the person is alive, blinking and moving their heads. It's very popular. And while in this case it might help people heal from loss, it's clear that we need more regulation around deepfakes, and now. Or else we could be headed for a future where this may make the proliferation of fake news look "quaint."
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ICYMI
Keep doing what you're doing
For a while now, Twitter has made it pretty clear that it won't be releasing an "edit" button. It even joked about it in a 2020 tweet, saying: "You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask." (Um, ok, so never). But it looks like we might be getting the next best thing — an "undo" option. This feature was originally noticed by researcher and app watcher Jane Manchun Wong, who posted a short video featuring the "Undo Send" timer for tweets. Mashable later confirmed the test with a Twitter spokesperson. I'll take it, but I think it will have to be a really short timer, because the ability of Twitter users to screen grab a troublesome tweet is well documented. In other news, we might one day be able to shop on Twitter.
Like, oops
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri apologized last week after the company accidentally launched private like counts to a large number of its users. So if you live in Canada, you're likely already used to not being able to see exactly how many people have liked someone else's post (Instagram started testing this feature in a select group of countries in 2019). But I guess it freaked out people in the U.S., who don't want to lose this ability. In a video posted on Twitter, Mosseri said the whole idea behind hiding likes is to "depressurize" the experience of using Instagram (aka, likes are often a popularity measure). He admitted the idea is very polarizing, so now they are looking at whether there is a way to bring private like counts to people who want to use them, but allow others to opt out. (While you're at it, could you also hide follower counts? 👍)
NEWS-LIKE
🔴 Glimpsing Behind The Curtain of YouTube's Anonymous Tea Channels [Vulture]
🔴 Netflix Enters TikTok Territory With Fast Laughs [Mashable]
🔴 How Non-Profits Can Use Social Media To Increase Donations and Boost Visibility [Forbes]
🔴 How Do Influencers Get Jobs? It's Changing [NY Times]
🔴 WhatsApp's Desktop App Now Has Video and Voice Calls [The Verge]
APP-LIKE
Despite a brief period earlier this year when messaging apps took the top spot, TikTok reclaimed its ranking at the top of the chart in February 2021, according to mobile app analytics firm SensorTower. The short-looping video app had more than 56 million installs. These were mainly in China and the United States. Facebook was in second place, followed by two of its owned apps: Instagram and WhatsApp. In the 5th spot was WhatsApp competitor Telegram.
TRENDING-LIKE
Keep an eye out for these trends:
Olive trees — Expect sales of this tree to go ⬆️ after Chrissy Teigen's Instagram post featuring her giant indoor tree generated some serious buzz.
Beard or no beard — A viral TikTok trend features bearded men without their beards; but don't be fooled, this is actually a Snapchat filter. Here's how to get it.
Audio influencers — NY Times reporter Taylor Lorenz details the birth of an Audio Collective, born out of the craze over invite-only audio app Clubhouse.
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