United States – On Wednesday, US legislators turned to leaders of tech giants to ask about their strategies for countering the foreign interference in the elections scheduled for November, with all concerned senators and company heads pointing to the 48-hour period of election day itself as the most risky, as reported by Reuters.
Tech Executives’ Insights
At the same hearing conducted by the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Microsoft (MSFT.O) president Brad Smith said:”There is a potential moment of peril ahead. Today we are 48 days away from the election… the most perilous moment will come, I think, 48 hours before the election,”
Smith was backed by Senator Mark Warner, the chair of the panel, but Warner added that the 48 hours after the votes on the November 5 polls could be “as crucial or even more” if the contest is tight.
Technology executives who appeared before the panel included those from Google (GOOGL.O) and Meta (META.O), which operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Several senators pointed out that Elon Musk’s X Firm was invited to testify but never showed up. An X spokesperson said the reason was that the company’s invited witness, former head of global affairs Nick Pickles, had resigned earlier this month.
However, a company spokesman stated that TikTok was not invited.
Challenges with Deepfakes and Misinformation
Smith used a case of the Slovak Republic’s 2023 election in which a so-called leaked voice conversation between a party leader and associates on vote-rigging was released on social media before the election. undefined
Warner and other senators also mentioned strategies outlined in a U.S. operation against what the senators alleged is Russian interference earlier this month involving fake sites impersonating genuine U.S. media outlets such as Fox News and the Washington Post.
“How does this get through?” How do we know how extensive this is?” Warner questioned the executives. He asked the companies to provide the committee with information on the number of people exposed to the content by next week and the number of ads about the content that were aired.
Tech Companies’ Response to Deepfakes
Tech companies now embrace labeling and watermarking as means of addressing the risks presented by new generative artificial intelligence technologies, that have made fake but realistic-sounding images, audio, and video productions easy to produce and raise concerns regarding its implication on the elections.
Asked whether the companies would do anything if such a deepfake of a political candidate emerged immediately ahead of the elections, Smith and Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, said their companies would add labels to the content, as reported by Reuters.
Meta “would suppress its circulation too,” Clegg said.”.