Former President Barack Obama has recently raised concerns about the spread of misinformation and deepfakes, suggesting the development of “digital fingerprints” to address the issue.
In an interview with his former senior adviser David Axelrod on the “The Axe Files” podcast, Obama acknowledged the challenges he faced as the first “digital president” and the target of misinformation and deepfake content.
Reflecting on his time in office, Obama noted, “As I’ve told people, because I was the first digital president when I left office, I was probably the most recorded, filmed, photographed human in history, which is kind of a weird thing.”
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He strongly suggested a need for technological solutions to combat misinformation, stating, “And the need for us, for the general public, I think to be more discriminating consumers of news and information, the need for us to over time develop technologies to create watermarks or digital fingerprints so we know what is true and what is not true.”
Expressing his concerns about the upcoming election cycle, Obama warned that the proliferation of deepfakes and misinformation would exacerbate the existing problems. “So, most immediately we’re going to have all the problems we had with misinformation before, [but] this next election cycle will be worse,” he cautioned.
Obama stressed the importance of individual responsibility in evaluating news sources and information. “And I think the best we’re going to be able to do is to constantly remind people that this is out there,” he said.
He highlighted the danger of misinformation discouraging people from participating in the democratic process, particularly through false claims of a rigged and corrupt system.
Expressing his concern about the development of cynicism during the upcoming election, “That can oftentimes advantage the powerful,” Obama stated.
The former president’s recent comments align with his earlier remarks on the need for journalists to create an information environment that supports democracy.
However, critics have pointed out instances where Obama himself propagated false information, such as the debunked narrative of collusion between former President Donald Trump and Russia in the 2016 election and his misleading promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” under the Affordable Care Act.
At the end of the day, a “digital fingerprint” is a means of tracking who is saying what for the purpose of combating “misinformation.” It is a tool to control the narrative even more than the what big tech did during the last election.
If government moves forward with this, we take another step into an Orwellian society that results in zero freedom.