Facebook's decision to remove manipulated videos dismissed by speaker Pelosi calling it 'inadequate'

A spokesman for the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed Facebook’s announcement that it would remove deepfakes and some other manipulated videos from its platform as inadequate on Tuesday.

“Facebook wants you to think the problem is video-editing technology, but the real problem is Facebook’s refusal to stop the spread of disinformation,” tweeted Drew Hammill , a spokesman for the speaker.

Facebook had told Reuters that as part of its new policy it will not remove a heavily edited video that attempted to make Pelosi seem incoherent by slurring her speech and making it appear like she repeatedly stumbled over her words.

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Facebook announced on Monday that it would remove some manipulated videos — known as deepfakes — if the changes were not apparent to the average person and could mislead someone into thinking that a person said something they did not say.

Facebook wants you to think the problem is video-editing technology, but the real problem is Facebook’s refusal to stop the spread of disinformation. https://t.co/JMhMD9ufaF

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) January 7, 2020

Another Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, also said that the Facebook policy change did not go far enough.

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“This still ignores low-tech synthetic media like that slowed down video of Speaker Pelosi, which can just as easily exploit and misinform the public,” he said in a tweet.

The Facebook blog post announcing the policy said videos that were not slated for removal could be looked at by fact-checkers, who might take action to slow a video’s distribution if it is rated false.

Facebook declined to comment on Tuesday.