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| Mark Zuckerberg |
Facebook, which has admitted that it ran more than 450 "inauthentic" pages and accounts that operated out of Russia during the 2016 presidential election, resorted to a PR ploy on Jan. 6 in announcing that it would do whatever it takes to ban deepfakes from its site.
That move comes ahead of the Jan. 8 House Energy & Commerce Committee's subcommittee on consumer protection & commerce hearing called "Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age." Congress is looking at you, Facebook.
Monika Bickert, Facebook's VP of global policy management, announced the new policy, saying the social network will remove content that's been edited "in ways that aren't apparent to an average person and would likely mislead someone into thinking that a subject of the video said words that they didn't say."
That's a good start, but the TechCrunch technology site points out that Facebook will allow edits or splices to video that curtail, slow down or change the order of a speaker's words.
In other words, Facebook's new policy would allow the infamous May 22, 2019 video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which her speech was slowed down by 75 percent, making it appear that she was drunk and slurring her words.
TechCrunch dismisses Facebook's updated position on manipulated media as "no to malicious deepfakes but spin doctors, please carry on."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has got to do better.
Goldman Sachs gets PR religion, promising a new era of openness and transparency in the hopes of giving a boost arm to its sluggish stock price.
The investment banker plans to "peel back the curtain" on its lending and proprietary bets and fashion its quarterly reports along the lines of competitors like JPMorgan Chase, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Goldman CEO David Solomon, reported the WSJ, told an off-site meeting last year that the company's stock should be trading for at least $400. It currently changes hands at $235.
Goldman slates its first investor day later this month, where it will flesh out the policy. Let's hope the new PR policy will result in gold for Goldman's investors.
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