An independent Meta review board ruled that a doctored video falsely suggesting President Joe Biden was a pedophile does not violate Facebook’s altered content rules. But it also criticized those rules as too narrow, focusing only on the use of AI in doctored content while ignoring content manipulated without AI. It said the policy in place, which includes labeling content generated with AI, is “incoherent and confusing to users, and fails to clearly specify the harms it is seeking to prevent.” The board suggested Meta expand its policy to cover audio and video content manipulated without AI, as these are “not necessarily any less misleading” than content that does use the disruptive technology. The video in question was a seven-second Facebook clip that used real footage of Biden kissing his granddaughter on the cheek to suggest the president was a pedophile. The review board’s ruling is the latest attempt toward policing misleading or untrue content that circulates on social media, which is especially alarming during an election year.
