How to Detect a Deepfake

Have you ever seen a video of your favorite celebrity or a political figure saying something out of character? The chances that that video was fake are fairly high, and in fact these videos are often referred to as “deepfakes”. The term “deepfake '' refers to a video of a person that has been digitally altered to convincingly replace one person’s likeness onto another's. 

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So, this video of President Obama telling us about the dangers of deepfakes, was in fact just Jordan Peele speaking with President Obama’s likeness over it. Kind of creepy, right? 

As technology becomes more and more sophisticated, our capabilities to make deceptive images 

and videos do as well. It’s important to know how to distinguish between a real video and a deepfake in our current climate, as deepfakes are increasingly used for harm and could lead a viewer to believe in something that was never real to begin with. 

But, how do you as a viewer distinguish between a real video and one that was intentionally created to be deceiving? It’s tricky, but, here are a few tips to keep in mind when you think you’ve come across a deepfake: 

1. Check to see if there are videos out there that are similar to the one you are watching, 
2. Triple check the source and maybe connect some of the dots, is the video coming from a reputable website or account? 
3. Look to see if there are any strange movements. Do the mouth and audio line up? Is the person blinking normally? 
4. Look for inconsistencies in the lighting and shadows. Sometimes a deepfake face can look extremely well lit even though the setting around them is quite dark.
5. If it’s an image, do a reverse image search to see if similar photos come up

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