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Voting technology firm, conservative outlet reach settlement in 2020 election defamation case

What *** bunch of malarkey voting. This Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump. Again. Deep fake as defined by Miriam Webster is an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone who is doing something or saying something that was not actually done or said deep fakes are on the rise and they’ve been used to misinform and manipulate voters earlier this year, *** political consultant paid *** New Orleans based magician $150 to do something that to the untrained eye would seem like magic. The job. He was tasked with creating an audio recording of Joe Biden saying something. He never said it’s important that you save your vote for the November election. It was *** deep fake and it took only 20 minutes to generate before being transformed into *** robocall that reached 20,000 people. The robocall represented one of the first times *** cloning deep fake was used for voter suppression. Other wide reaching deep fakes have attempted to influence voting behaviors on social platforms too. For instance, on May 10th, 2023 Donald Trump junior reposted *** video on X that received over 3 million views in it. *** deep fake of Anderson Cooper praises former President Donald Trump that was President Donald J Trump ripping us *** new here on CNN S live presidential town hall. And *** month later, the Rhonda Santa campaign shared *** video on X that contained deep fake images of Donald Trump hugging Doctor Anthony Fauci. The post received over 10 million views creating deep fakes like these used to take multiple weeks. It could cost thousands of dollars but they now can be made in *** matter of minutes at little or no cost raising serious concerns in *** democracy. We cannot have our democracy undermined by adss and by videos and by Robo calls when you literally don’t know if it’s the candidate you love or the candidate you dislike that individual going into the voter box must know what you believe in and that can’t be done if someone is deceptively using your name, your image, your likeness, not possible. The Federal Communication Commission announced on February 8th that *** I generated audio clips and robocalls are illegal but deep fakes on social media and in campaign advertisements are yet to be subject to *** federal ban. Leaving the regulation of deep fakes on social media up to the platforms themselves. Major tech companies including Google, meta, tiktok and X have ***, *** framework for mitigating the influence *** I generated deep fakes can have on voters. The framework titled the *** I elections Accord targets *** I generated audio video and images that deceptively fake or alter the appearance, voice or actions of political candidates, election officials and other key stakeholders in *** democratic election or that provide false information to voters about when where and how they can lawfully vote. However, the framework does not necessarily target election based deep fakes by banning them. Instead, the framework pledges to identify methods that can detect and label deceptive content when it surfaces on the platform, users on X have begun to detect and label deceptive content as *** form of self policing community notes often materialize on deep fake content, but it can be hard to rely on others to identify deep fakes for you and all the more important to know how to identify *** deep fake for yourself. Here are some ways you can identify deep fakes during this election season and beyond. You want to listen for things that don’t quite sound human. One trick that I like to talk about is some research coming out of the State University of New York at Buffalo and that is looking at breathing and with deep fakes, if you listen, sometimes they will take no breaths when they’re talking. So you may actually feel *** sense of breathlessness when you listen next, take *** closer look at the visuals. This technology still has some errors in it. So for example, the earrings may not be fully formed or the teeth may not be fully formed or the glasses may not be fully formed. So sometimes you can look for little details like that, that will tell you about deep fake images. As far as deep fake video goes, often the physiology isn’t quite working yet. The pieces and parts of the face aren’t quite together yet and then verify the message is this message real. So if the message is asking you to do something that could potentially hurt you or manipulate you, you want to verify it before you take any action before you believe what the message has to say. And lastly educate yourself, learn about how Attackers are using deep fakes, learn about how politicians and political parties are using deep fakes. Read about it. It’s as simple as that. We need to go back to that basic message. What do they want from me? Could it hurt me? Can I verify it? And if you can’t verify it, don’t do it?

Voting technology firm, conservative outlet reach settlement in 2020 election defamation case

A settlement has been reached in a defamation lawsuit pitting an electronic voting machine manufacturer targeted by allies of former President Donald Trump against a conservative news outlet that aired accusations of vote manipulation in the 2020 election.Related video above: Digital deception: How political deepfakes threaten election integrityNewsmax on Thursday confirmed a deal had been reached but further details were not disclosed. Smartmatic, the voting machine company, has claimed that Newsmax program hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements in November and December 2020 implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results and that its software was used to switch votes.Newsmax argued that it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.The Delaware lawsuit, which takes issue with Newsmax reports over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several stemming from reports by conservative news outlets following the election.Smartmatic also is suing Fox News for defamation in New York and recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the One America News Network, another conservative outlet.Dominion Voting Systems similarly filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. Last year, in a case presided over by Davis, Fox News settled with Dominion for $787 million.

WILMINGTON, Del. —

Related video above: Digital deception: How political deepfakes threaten election integrity

Newsmax on Thursday confirmed a deal had been reached but further details were not disclosed. Smartmatic, the voting machine company, has claimed that Newsmax program hosts and guests made false and defamatory statements in November and December 2020 implying that Smartmatic participated in rigging the results and that its software was used to switch votes.

Newsmax argued that it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations being made by Trump and his supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney Sidney Powell.

The Delaware lawsuit, which takes issue with Newsmax reports over a five-week period in late 2020, is one of several stemming from reports by conservative news outlets following the election.

Smartmatic also is suing Fox News for defamation in New York and recently settled a lawsuit in the District of Columbia against the One America News Network, another conservative outlet.

Dominion Voting Systems similarly filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. Last year, in a case presided over by Davis, Fox News settled with Dominion for $787 million.