Opinion: Facebook’s tolerance for audio deepfakes is absurd

Facebook would slap a warning label on the clip but leave it up for people to click through, listen to and share with others. That antiquated policy could prove disastrous in a divisive election year. — Dreamstime/TNS

In the same amount of time it would take to toast a slice of bread, you could clone the voice of President Joe Biden and share it on social media. You could have him mutter in his slow and gravelly voice: “I’ve always known Covid-19 was a hoax, it’s just useful to pretend it’s real,” then superimpose the audio on a photo of the president grinning, upload it to TikTok, YouTube and Facebook, and wait.

Then a funny thing would happen. The first two sites would take your clip down. But the biggest platform – the one with three billion users – would not. Facebook would slap a warning label on the clip but leave it up for people to click through, listen to and share with others. That antiquated policy could prove disastrous in a divisive election year.