Alecs Ștefănescu
The Romanian Ministry of Digitalization released a form that people can use to report malicious #deepfake materials. What counts as malicious? Fraud, propaganda, disinformation.
We went into detail about how misguided this is, in a Romanian article over on the @apti website: https://apti.ro/ordinul-mcid-deepfake-praf-cu-iz-electoral .
But, because this matter concerns me deeply, here's a break-down in English (especially relevant if you're following the #DSA implementation): 1/4
Alecs Ștefănescu
This ignores the main problem.
98% of #deepfake material is pornographic. 99% of the victims of deepfake pornography identify as women.
In Ro, journalists & activists have been adamant about showing the violence against women perpetrated online and aided by technology.
Yet, the Gov. chose to focus on 2% of all deepfakes, thus creating a false narrative that this tech is used mainly to influence elections and commit fraud - when, in fact, the majority of victims are being ignored. 2/4
Alecs Ștefănescu
Last but not least, there is no transparency, nor feedback.
A user doesn't find out whether the content they reported was forwarded to the adequate VLOP. We don't even get to know how many reports the Ministry processed, who they forwarded the reports to and whether action was taken to remove the content.
The form asks citizens to provide an e-mail address, but doesn't mention why, doesn't indicate what it will be used for (hello, #GDPR).
It's all just dust in the wind (of elections) 4/4
Alecs Ștefănescu
The Ministry doesn't have any competence to decide what propaganda & disinformation is. The end result may be that legitimate speech gets classified as malicious, or that truly harmful speech gets classified as legit. Both are dangerous.
There *could be* a collaboration (and knowledge sharing) between Gov. & civic society & academia, under the #DSA. But the Ro #DSC is adamant in not reaching out and involving these sectors. We also don't know which ones the competent authorities are. 3/4
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