Reddit has banned impersonation unless it’s for parody and satire. This includes deepfakes and other forms of manipulated content that’s presented to mislead people. So, Redditors are on notice that Reddit will be cracking down on the practice in 2020.
At the start of January 2020, Facebook banned deepfakes and Photoshops. And now Reddit has followed suit with its own updated policy. This change is an attempt “to handle bad actors who are trying to manipulate Reddit” now and in the future.
Reddit Bans Impersonation Designed to Deceive
In a post on r/redditsecurity, Reddit announced the new policy. This is designed to “better cover some of the use cases that we have been seeing and actioning under this rule already, as well as guard against cases we might see in the future.”
Reddit claims that impersonation is quite rare at the moment, with the most likely scenario being “a Reddit username pretending to be someone else”. However, there are also fake articles, forged election communications, and scammy domain names.
Ahead of the 2020 elections, Reddit is set to ban impersonation on its platform, including everything from deepfakes to individuals making false claims about their identities. https://t.co/Dv45qPt04q
— Reuters News Agency (@ReutersAgency) January 13, 2020
Reddit is also trying to get ahead of the curve, targeting “malicious deepfakes of politicians” and “other, lower-tech forged or manipulated content that misleads”. However, satire and parody is OK, and Reddit promises to always look at the context of content.
You can read the full policy against impersonation on this page on the Reddit Account and Community Restrictions. And “if you are being impersonated, or if you believe you’ve found content in violation of these guidelines,” you can report it here.
Everything You Need to Know About Deepfakes
There’s no coincidence that technology companies are cracking down on deepfakes and the like right now. The 2020 United States Presidential Election are taking place this year, and that’s guaranteed to prompt an uptick in manipulated media.
Even with these new rules in place, some deepfakes and other attempts to deceive are bound to fall through the cracks. So, to help you determine what’s real and fake, here’s everything you need to know about deepfakes and the AI technology behind it.
Image Credit: Antonio Zugaldia/Flickr
Read the full article: You Can No Longer Impersonate People on Reddit
