3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video are shared online daily. Can you sort real from fake?

1. T.J. Thomson

   Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Media, Queensland University of Technology

2. Daniel Angus

   Associate Professor in Digital Communication, Queensland University of Technology

3. Paula Dootson

   Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology

 Twitter over the weekend “tagged” as manipulated a video showing US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden supposedly forgetting which state he’s in while addressing a crowd.

Biden’s “hello Minnesota” greeting contrasted with prominent signage reading “Tampa, Florida” and “Text FL to 30330”.

The Associated Press’s fact check confirmed the signs were added digitally and the original footage was indeed from a Minnesota rally. But by the time the misleading video was removed it already had more than one million views, The Guardian reports.

If you use social media, the chances are you see (and forward) some of the more than 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video shared daily. When faced with such a glut of content, how can we know what’s real and what’s not?

While one part of the solution is an increased use of content verification tools, it’s equally important we all boost our digital media literacy. Ultimately, one of the best lines of defence — and the only one you can control — is you.

Seeing shouldn’t always be believing

Misinformation (when you accidentally share false content) and disinformation (when you intentionally share it) in any medium can erode trust in civil institutions such as news organisations, coalitions and social movements. However, fake photos and videos are often the most potent.

For those with a vested political interest, creating, sharing and/or editing false images can distract, confuse and manipulate viewers to sow discord and uncertainty (especially in already polarised environments). Posters and platforms can also make money from the sharing of fake, sensationalist content.

Only 11-25% of journalists globally use social media content verification tools, according to the International Centre for Journalists.

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Read more: Facebook is tilting the political playing field more than ever, and it's no accident

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Could you spot a doctored image?

Consider this photo of Martin Luther King Jr.

This altered image clones part of the background over King Jr’s finger, so it looks like he’s flipping off the camera. It has been shared as genuine on Twitter, Reddit and white supremacist websites.

In the original 1964 photo, King flashed the “V for victory” sign after learning the US Senate had passed the civil rights bill.

Beyond adding or removing elements, there’s a whole category of photo manipulation in which images are fused together.

Earlier this year, a photo of an armed man was photoshopped by Fox News, which overlaid the man onto other scenes without disclosing the edits, the Seattle Times reported.

Similarly, the image below was shared thousands of times on social media in January, during Australia’s Black Summer bushfires. The AFP’s fact check confirmed it is not authentic and is actually a combination of several separate photos.

Fully and partially synthetic content

Online, you’ll also find sophisticated “deepfake” videos showing (usually famous) people saying or doing things they never did. Less advanced versions can be created using apps such as Zao and Reface.

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created this fake video showing US President Richard Nixon reading lines from a speech crafted in case the 1969 moon landing failed. (Youtube)

Or, if you don’t want to use your photo for a profile picture, you can default to one of several websites offering hundreds of thousands of AI-generated, photorealistic images of people.

These people don’t exist, they’re just images generated by artificial intelligence. Generated Photos, CC BY

Editing pixel values and the (not so) simple crop

Cropping can greatly alter the context of a photo, too.

We saw this in 2017, when a US government employee edited official pictures of Donald Trump’s inauguration to make the crowd appear bigger, according to The Guardian. The staffer cropped out the empty space “where the crowd ended” for a set of pictures for Trump.

Views of the crowds at the inaugurations of former US President Barack Obama in 2009 (left) and President Donald Trump in 2017 (right). AP

But what about edits that only alter pixel values such as colour, saturation or contrast?

One historical example illustrates the consequences of this. In 1994, Time magazine’s cover of OJ Simpson considerably “darkened” Simpson in his police mugshot. This added fuel to a case already plagued by racial tension, to which the magazine responded:

No racial implication was intended, by Time or by the artist.

Tools for debunking digital fakery

For those of us who don’t want to be duped by visual mis/disinformation, there are tools available — although each comes with its own limitations (something we discuss in our recent paper).

Invisible digital watermarking has been proposed as a solution. However, it isn’t widespread and requires buy-in from both content publishers and distributors.

Reverse image search (such as Google’s) is often free and can be helpful for identifying earlier, potentially more authentic copies of images online. That said, it’s not foolproof because it:

• relies on unedited copies of the media already being online
• doesn’t search the entire web
• doesn’t always allow filtering by publication time. Some reverse image search services such as TinEye support this function, but Google’s doesn’t.
• returns only exact matches or near-matches, so it’s not thorough. For instance, editing an image and then flipping its orientation can fool Google into thinking it’s an entirely different one.

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Read more: Instead of showing leadership, Twitter pays lip service to the dangers of deep fakes

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Most reliable tools are sophisticated

Meanwhile, manual forensic detection methods for visual mis/disinformation focus mostly on edits visible to the naked eye, or rely on examining features that aren’t included in every image (such as shadows). They’re also time-consuming, expensive and need specialised expertise.

Still, you can access work in this field by visiting sites such as Snopes.com — which has a growing repository of “fauxtography”.

Computer vision and machine learning also offer relatively advanced detection capabilities for images and videos. But they too require technical expertise to operate and understand.

Moreover, improving them involves using large volumes of “training data”, but the image repositories used for this usually don’t contain the real-world images seen in the news.

If you use an image verification tool such as the REVEAL project’s image verification assistant, you might need an expert to help interpret the results.

The good news, however, is that before turning to any of the above tools, there are some simple questions you can ask yourself to potentially figure out whether a photo or video on social media is fake. Think:

• was it originally made for social media?
• how widely and for how long was it circulated?
• what responses did it receive?
• who were the intended audiences?

Quite often, the logical conclusions drawn from the answers will be enough to weed out inauthentic visuals. You can access the full list of questions, put together by Manchester Metropolitan University experts, here.

https://theconversation.com/3-2-billion-images-and-720-000-hours-of-video-are-shared-online-daily-can-you-sort-real-from-fake-148630

• Social media
• Digital age
• Misinformation
• Fake news
• Disinformation
• deep fake
• Fake video
• Online images

 

Dodgy Dominion? Voting machines said to CRASH during Georgia recount, as court orders officials not to wipe data

 

30 Nov, 2020 14:40

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Poll workers pack up voting machines at an early voting location in Dekalb County, Georgia, October 9, 2020 © Reuters / Chris Aluka Berry 

Georgia’s vote recount was reportedly halted by a Dominion Voting Systems server crash. Meanwhile, a judge ordered officials not to wipe data from Dominion devices ahead of a possible “forensic investigation” into fraud claims.

After a statewide recount affirmed Joe Biden’s 12,000-vote win over Donald Trump, the president requested another recount by hand last week, alleging illegal ballots helped Biden squeak out a victory in the Peach State. With the tally ongoing, counting in Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, was halted on Sunday when a server, obtained from Dominion Voting Systems, crashed. 

ALSO ON RT.COMTrump says FBI & DOJ ‘MISSING IN ACTION’ on alleged voter fraud, in first post-election interview

“Technicians from Dominion have been dispatched to resolve the issue,” Fulton County officials said in a statement to local media, adding that “the Georgia Secretary of State’s office has also been alerted to the issue.”

Dominion is a foreign-owned company whose voting machines are used in 28 US states. In the aftermath of this month’s disputed election, Trump and a number of Republicans accused the firm of enabling outsiders to “glitch” votes in favor of Biden.

Dominion’s security vulnerabilities are well documented, including in the user manuals enclosed with the machines. Just last year, a group of prominent Democrats, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, warned Dominion’s machines were “prone to security problems,” including "switching votes,” “undisclosed vulnerabilities” and results that “threaten the integrity of our elections.”

These allegations play a starring role in a lawsuit filed last week by former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, who is still seeking to overturn Biden’s apparent win in Georgia as a freelancer. Powell’s suit alleges Dominion’s machines were designed to “hide its manipulation of votes from any audit,” and that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp knew this when he awarded the firm a contract to supply voting machines to his state last year.

In a minor victory for Powell and co-lawyer Lin Wood, a judge in Georgia granted a temporary injunction on Sunday night forbidding election officials from wiping data from Dominion machines, pending a possible “forensic inspection.” The judge previously issued a similar order, which was successfully challenged by Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“Sidney Powell @SidneyPowell1 & I won, then lost, but ended up winning. We will never give up the pursuit of TRUTH to achieve justice,” Wood tweeted after the injunction was granted.

ALSO ON RT.COMTrump supporters to Georgia Republicans: Back the president or get ‘destroyed’ in January Senate runoffs

Dominion responded to Powell and Wood’s lawsuit by accusing the two lawyers of spinning a “bizarre election fraud conspiracy.” The voting company said the allegations against it are “baseless, senseless, physically impossible, and unsupported by any evidence whatsoever,” and that its technology is “the gold standard for transparent and accountable voting equipment.”

After the state’s first recount, Kemp signed the paperwork awarding Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Biden. Trump has thus far refused to acknowledge Biden’s win in Georgia, or nationally, but told reporters on Thursday that should the Electoral College declare the former vice president the winner when it meets in December, he would “certainly” leave office.

However, the embattled president said a day later that “Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained.”

Bombshell report reveals how Ukrainian lobbyists pitted US against EU over new Russia-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline

 

 

30 Nov, 2020 11:52

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FILE PHOTO © AFP / Odd ANDERSEN 

Ukrainian energy executives and Kiev’s national security officials launched a coordinated lobbying campaign in Washington that put the US on a collision course with EU countries over a new gas pipeline.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday how spin doctors working for Kiev-based Naftogaz and at least one representative of Ukraine’s National Security Council pressed for four years to influence White House officials to oppose the Nord Stream 2 project.

According to the newspaper, they relied on close relations with so-called “Russia-skeptics” in Congress, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, to propose a package of sanctions on European companies involved in laying the Baltic Sea pipeline.

READ MORE: US again threatens sanctions on European companies over Nord Stream 2 as Russian-German pipeline project ploughs ahead

After Washington warned it would target construction and shipping firms involved in the project, which are mainly based in Germany and Denmark, Naftogaz’s Vadim Glamazdin is said to have claimed that it would be “the final nail in the coffin.”“When these sanctions are finally voted and become law, there will be no practical way to build this pipeline,” he added.

On Saturday it was reported that construction would resume on Nord Stream 2 this week, after a number of companies pulled out of the project last year in response to US threats of legal action. The 764-mile (1,229km) underwater pipeline will be among the longest in the world, linking Siberia’s natural gas fields to the German port of Greifswald and more than 150 companies involved in its construction have been earmarked for punitive measures.

The partnership behind the project, which includes Russian state-owned Gazprom as well as UK, German and French energy firms, say it will “meet growing demands of consumers in Europe.” However, Ukrainian politicians are fearful that Kiev stands to lose the $3 billion it makes from transit fees it imposes on Russian gas flowing through the pipelines built by Moscow during the Soviet era. Nord Stream 2 would allow Russia to send supplies to the EU without paying the levy. Ukraine’s annual budget is around $40 billion, and this represents a significant source of income.

ALSO ON RT.COMConstruction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to restart next month

That argument has undoubtedly found favor with President Donald Trump’s administration and senior members of his party who have said that it represents a “grave threat” to Europe’s “energy security, and American national security.” However, there has been widespread speculation that the US’ position is also influenced by a desire to sell vast quantities of American shale gas to the continent. According to Politico, a common refrain in Berlin is that “the Americans don’t care about Russia, they just want to sell us their fracking gas.”

The issue has become a bone of contention in relations between the US and Germany. In August, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas rebuked Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the threat of “crushing legal sanctions” currently being considered by Congress on the German port of Murkan, where Russian vessels are supporting construction. In October, Maas said he “assumed” that the project would be completed regardless of Washington’s objections. “The question is, when,” he added.

US is Losing in the Militarily Race against Russia and China

 30.11.2020 Author: Valery Kulikov

Column: Politics

Region: USA in the World

The Trump administration, pursuing its adventurous policy and inciting hostility towards Russia and China, has recently repeatedly tried to demonstrate “intimidation” to Moscow and Beijing. Some times this took the form of a concentration of more and more armed forces near the borders of “two strategic adversaries” declared by Washington. One could also cite the unsuccessful provocative actions of the US Navy in the South China Sea or the recently shameful flight of USS John S. McCain (DDG-56), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, from the Russian destroyer Admiral Vinogradov in the Peter the Great Gulf. Yen another example could be almost constant reconnaissance flights of American combat aircraft and strategic bombers near Russia’s and China’s borders.

However, the United States has long lost its former military power. Today even American experts like Military.com acknowledge their inability to conduct simultaneous hostilities against Russia and China. Even though the US defense budget has broken all records in recent years, “as currently postured, the US military is only marginally able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests,” the Heritage Foundation stated in its annual Index of US Military Strength. Today, the U.S. military was about “two-thirds the size it should be” to address the two major wars scenario. Therefore the simultaneous conduct of hostilities with two such serious opponents will inevitably entail the defeat of the United States.

Advertised by the American media, a clumsy attempt to “intimidate Russia” was made with a quick airlift in a recent play-war in Romania of two American HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, which fired several missiles in the direction of the Russian Crimea. This action was not perceived as a severe threat to Russia but simply used as propaganda for the United States’ benefit. Today, any military expert can confirm that if American missiles attack, for example, Crimea, then Russia, with the help of its radio-technical intelligence stations, will find where these missiles were launched from. The Panzer surface-to-air missile (SAM) will start to “work” on enemy missiles, which received the highest rating by experts from the USA. And the HIMARS itself will be destroyed in the shortest possible time by the Russian Iskanders. And such a situation is inevitable, even if one does not consider the possible retaliatory actions of the Russian air force concerning such HIMARS installations and their coordinating centers.

Today, many American experts state a lack of funding for the defense industry, a loss of US combat capability, and negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the fight against which requires enormous resources from the American authorities. However, the still incumbent US President Donald Trump said in late September at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, that participation in many stupid endless wars was one of the main reasons for the “attrition” of the US armed forces.

It is also necessary to add the American military budget’s intensified use by the highly corrupt current US military-political elite, not so much for the American army’s interests as for their enrichment. This is also confirmed by the “active growth of their well-being” in recent years, which cannot be explained solely by the size of official’s salaries.

Hence, publications periodically appearing in the American media about the quality of American military equipment and weapons that do not meet today’s standards do not cause questions. In particular, National Interest recently drew attention to this issue, stressing that today, in addition to the plight of the United States in relation to its adversaries in the realm of hypersonics, “We [the United States – ed.], today, do not have systems which can hold them [Russia and China] at risk in a corresponding manner, and we don’t have defenses against those systems.”

After another public image blow suffered by the US a year ago in relation to the prestige of Patriot air defense systems in Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon began to search hard for ways to fix gaps in its air defense system and “turned its eyes” to the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system.  According to the American website Stripes, preparations for testing this missile defense system have been underway for some time in the direction of its integration into the American anti-missile system THAAD. The Pentagon already received the first Iron Dome battery from Israel in October, and additional equipment is slated to be delivered to Fort Bliss, Texas, by January 2021. Earlier in the American media, there were reports on creating a joint production line for this system between Washington and Tel Aviv.

Despite doubts from senior US military officials about the Iron Dome’s reliability in intercepting cruise missiles and the possibility of its integration into the US-Canada Joint Defense System (NORAD), Congress has already allocated funds to purchase the missile defense system for the US Army. The information recently published by the Israeli media that the Iron Dome missile defense system did not intercept a missile launched from the Gaza Strip, aimed at Ashkelon, again confirmed the doubts of several American experts about the unreliability of the Israeli missile defense system. However, due to the already paid by Israel support for this contract, the United States’ corrupt military-political circles are not making any changes to the American missile defense system’s equipment with the Iron Dome.

Therefore, it is not the lack of funding for the US military budget that is to blame for the deteriorating condition of the US Army, just like, indeed, for the disastrous state of social security and medical care for US military veterans.

After decades of so-called “endless wars” that have cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars and killed thousands of American troops, a substantial prejudice has formed in the United States against further increases in defense spending—strongly advocated by members of the American military and political elite. “It is very understandable that Americans get tired of 20 years of news reports about U.S. military operations in distant countries, where progress is questionable,” Fox News pointed out.

Therefore, instead of focusing on strengthening the military factor in its policy, the United States should prefer diplomacy, developing economic relations, and interaction based on shared values, and not replicating sanctions. And it is to this task that the new presidential administration should be giving priority attention, to show the Americans and the whole world the justification of the November 3 elections’ results after the country’s new leader’s arrival to the White House with new measured approaches to current world problems.

Valery Kulikov, political expert, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

https://journal-neo.org/2020/11/30/us-is-losing-in-the-militarily-race-against-russia-and-china/