Tech giant Meta and a cross-industry alliance on Monday announced a joint effort towards launching a fact-checking helpline on messaging platform WhatsApp to combat the menace of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes.
The helpline, expected to be available for public use next month, will allow users to flag deepfakes by alerting a dedicated WhatsApp chatbot. The chatbot will offer multilingual support — in English as well as Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, said Meta, which has joined hands with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA).
After holding two rounds of discussions with intermediaries on the issue of deepfakes and misinformation, a group of twenty of the world’s most prominent tech companies, including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and IBM, signed an agreement last week to address AI-generated misinformation ahead of the 2024 elections.
The Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, had emphasized watermarking and labelling of content as an approach to tackle deepfakes. The minister had stated that although these measures were basic requirements, many miscreants found a way to circumvent them.
Additionally, the Indian government announced that it would change the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021 to include stricter measures against deepfakes.
MCA will establish a central “deepfake analysis unit” to handle all incoming messages on the WhatsApp hotline as part of their partnership with Meta in India.
According to a news release, it will also collaborate closely with other member fact-checking organizations, industry partners, and digital laboratories to evaluate and validate the content and react to messages appropriately, dispelling falsehoods and misinformation.
According to a press statement, the campaign would employ a four-pillar approach to halt the proliferation of deepfakes: detection, prevention, reporting, and raising awareness.
In addition, Meta earlier this month unveiled a “AI labelling policy” that outlines its intention to work with other industry players to create “common technical standards” that will facilitate the tagging of content produced by artificial intelligence.
In 2022, Meta, the company behind the well-known social media sites Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, launched a fact-checking initiative in India in collaboration with 11 separate partners.
