1st election deepfake shows false numbers in presidential poll

In the same week that the campaigns for the presidential and governorship race began, the first deepfake is between us. Now the victim was the journalist Renata Vasconcellos: A small change has been made to the voice of Renata so that the people who were watching would understand that Jair Bolsonaro was ahead of Luiz Inacio da Silva in a poll of intent to vote that had its result released on August 15, 2022.

The big problem in this case is that despite the video having been on the YouTube, there was also a circulation in groups of WhatsApp and social networks. Understand the case right now and what has been done to avoid this problem.

What is a deepfake?

Deepfake is a mixture of the term Deep Learning (“Deep Learning”, in Portuguese) and Fake (“Falsidade”, in Portuguese) that refers to any video or image in which a face is replaced by the face of other people.

This technique uses deep learning to change faces or voices and create believable results. THE deep learning is one of the branches of Machine Learning of Artificial Intelligence based on the representation of data that allows the creation of algorithms that "learn" to identify patterns and structures from an immense set of data.

The use of deepfake emerged in the pornographic industry: faces of famous people were placed on the bodies of porn actors and actresses as a way of showing these people in intimate moments. But it didn't take long for video manipulations to reach other specters of society.

O showmetech already made a complete article with the 10 best deepfake websites and apps, be sure to check it out.

Renata Vasconcellos was a victim of manipulation

The first video manipulation of the 2022 elections involved editing the National Journal of August 15, 2022. During the program, the journalist Renata Vasconcellos performed the reading of the voting intention results of a survey carried out by the ipec (Cananéia Research Institute).

The real video without manipulations can be watched below and you can see that Squid was with 44% of voting intentions and Jair Bolsonaro reached 32% among those interviewed. Watch:

As for the video that was manipulated, the information was reversed: Jair Bolsonaro reached 44% of the votes and Lula stagnated with 32% of voting intentions. Despite being available on the YouTube for approximately 12 hours, the first deepfake of the 2022 elections was watched 1.400 times and caused doubts in users.

Many people questioned whether the fake video was from 2018 (although Lula did not run for president this year) and there were even comments citing that “the truth was starting to come out”.

The amended video was sent as an attachment to a report to the Disinformation Alert System Against Superior Electoral Court Elections (TSE) and in the Public Prosecutor's Office (MEP). O ipec is taking care of the entire process and more information should be released in the coming days.

policy and deepfake are practically connected

The practice of video manipulation has already helped other candidates advance in polls. This happened due to the popular candidate being involved in an unexpected situation that was not in accordance with the ideals said in the campaign.

One of them is that of Nancy Pelosi, current Speaker of the US House, but at the time of the video, still a deputy, who appeared in a TV interview apparently intoxicated. THE deepfake began to circulate on social networks with the voice of Nancy changed and those responsible - who were never identified - performed a slowdown in her voice to imply that she was drunk on national television. Later, Reuters confirmed that it was all just a manipulation.

Another case was in the elections for president of the Mexico in 2018: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who at the time was a candidate but was later elected president, appeared in a video with signs of drunkenness. The population was confused, but many people actually believed that the candidate had drunk more than he should have.

Despite being denied and many videos are not even so real, the big problem of deepfakes is that after they start to go viral, it becomes a little difficult to deliver the real video to people who have already watched it, believed it and sent it to the most diverse groups of WhatsApp and other messaging apps.

have you ever seen a deepfake and had doubts if the material was legitimate or fake? tell us Comment!

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Sources: UOL l Examination