Search giant Google has rolled out a range of updates for Search which it hopes can better combat the issue linked to explicit deepfakes.
The company says the goal is to ensure deepfakes are as difficult to find as possible while mentioning how this is a part of its ongoing struggle against images that have been manipulated to look so real.
The firm explained how this would ensure that any victims targeted would now be able to get rid of those manipulated identities from Search, preventing any danger to their reputation online.
This has long been a major issue for many users as it requests them to delete those types of pictures under the company’s policies.
Now, when someone grants a deletion request, the company filters explicit themed results on similar types of searches related to them.
The firm’s systems would scan any duplicates of the respective offending picture and also get rid of those too. This change would assist in removing the fears that victims come with when they’re worried about similar kinds of images popping up repeatedly across various websites.
Additionally, the search engine giant updated all of those ranking systems so that in cases when users search for an explicit identity that’s fake through details like names, only non-explicit material would appear instead of the opposite.
If some news articles related to a certain person arise, then results would entail those too. Depending on Google’s announcement, it appears that its got plans to school others searching for such troublesome content online by displaying results that talk about their effect on society.
The tech giant doesn’t wish to get rid of any kind of results that are linked to legitimate material. For instance, that which has to do with celebrities taking part in some explicit scene for a film.
The goal is to get rid of deepfakes from the results page, it adds. Hence, it still has a long way to go to achieve that goal but the fact that it understands this and has admitted is another feather added to the cap.
It’s not easy to first identify deepfakes because of how similar they are to real pictures. It’s definitely a work in progress and Google says it’s getting there. One of the latest replies it has rolled out is demoting websites that feature a large volume of content removals of such kinds of pictures through its Search.
It’s a great signal for those who might not be aware of how the page isn’t a great quality website. The company also explained how using this approach has done wonders for various kinds of harmful content seen in the past.
Even if it’s delayed, the fact that Google does acknowledge that the problem does exist and therefore is making some corrective measures to ensure the situation doesn’t get out of control says a lot.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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