Authoritarian Regimes Could Exploit Cries of 'Deepfake'

A viral video shows a young woman conducting an exercise class on a roundabout in the Burmese capital, Nyapyidaw. Behind her a military convoy approaches a checkpoint to go conduct arrests at the Parliament building. Has she inadvertently filmed a coup? The video later became a viral meme, but for the first days, online amateur sleuths debated if it was green-screened or otherwise manipulated, often using the jargon of verification and image forensics. Yet claims of audiovisual manipulation are increasingly being used to make people wonder if what is real is a fake.