As the RNC ends, swing states’ efforts to fight misinformation ramp up ahead of the election

A soldier in a war zone. Band members playing in the street. A smiling selfie.

A soldier in a war zone. Band members playing in the street. A smiling selfie. When audience members during an event at the Republican National Convention were asked on Monday to raise their hand if they thought these images were artificially generated, several participants were able to correctly guess which images were real, while some were left stumped. Microsoft experts Ginny Badanes and Ashley O’Rourke walked the audience through common signs of deepfake, methods of labeling content, tips on making a plan to fight back against deepfakes and ways to report at a time when state and local governments and political parties are working to address misinformation head on. Badanes said one of the reasons they do these trainings, which was hosted by the organization All in Together and presented by Microsoft, is so that those who are involved in the political process are tracking deepfakes and thinking through what they would do if something happened involving their candidate or organization. O’Rourke said some of the most compelling and believable deepfakes are of local officials and candidates for office rather than candidates on a federal level. “If you’re a campaign or candidate running for office, you want to be able to put out photos of your events and put out press statements and videos,” she said. “And you want voters to trust the content that you are putting out as a trusted source of information, and this deepfake issue is causing voters to lose that trust.”