When Catherine, Princess of Wales, announced last month that she had been diagnosed with cancer, she appeared to quash rumors that had swirled about her retirement from public life.
It’s not for everyone. With misinformation spreading rapidly on the Internet, sometimes amplified by hostile states, some social media users were prepared for skepticism. A note from Getty Images alongside the video’s announcement, released on March 22, said it “may not adhere” to its editorial policy and created more conspiracy theories about the video’s authenticity.
There is no evidence, according to investigators, that the video is fake, and agencies routinely attach such notes to content provided to them by third parties.
With images that are easy to manipulate, researchers say news outlets are transparent about the source of their content.
Getty says the caption is a standard editors note.
The editors’ note, added along with other details, including that Kensington Palace had shared the video, was brief: “This brochure excerpt was provided by a third-party organization and may not comply with Getty Images’ editorial policy.” , he said. .
This disclaimer is not unique to this video. A spokeswoman for Getty Images said Wednesday that it has added a “standard editor’s note” to any content provided by third-party organizations. Other agencies also regularly use such notations for clarity.
It was unclear when that policy went into effect, and the spokeswoman declined to comment further. Online sleuths, however, pointed out that the same note was added to a clip provided by a government agency of the bridge that collapsed last week in Baltimore.
Kensington Palace also did not produce the video itself: A BBC affiliate said in a statement that it filmed the message in Windsor on March 20.
“I don’t see any convincing evidence that this is a deepfake», said VS Subrahmanian, a computer science professor at Northwestern University who has researched deepfakes. Professor Subrahmanian ran a copy of the video through a system of 15 algorithms his team developed to detect fake videos and also reviewed it manually with another analyst.
Elements such as the sound of the video and Kate’s movements appeared to be natural, and the technical evidence indicated that it was unlikely to be fake. “Context is a very big part of it,” he added. “The bigger context is that it was a video shot by the BBC, which is an extremely reliable source.”
Getty’s push for transparency inadvertently fueled the latest theories.
Photo agencies take allegations of distorted images seriously and have cut ties with photographers who have changed jobs.
When it is difficult to send their own photographers to a scene, agencies may rely instead on “handout” images provided by a team involved in a story.
“They are very keen not to take handouts and have their own photographers where possible,” said Nic Newman, senior research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. News agencies, however, have concerns about how public figures, including politicians and celebrities, are increasingly using handouts to try to “control the narrative,” he said.
The memo was an example of agencies’ efforts to be more transparent with their clients who used those photos, he said, but there was a risk of fueling conspiracy theories. “People often take these labels and then blow them out of proportion.”
News agencies recalled an earlier photo of the palace.
Before Catherine announced her diagnosis, photo agencies caused an uproar when they said a photo of her — released by the palace and widely circulated online — had been “manipulated” and urged news organizations to retract it.
The Associated Press issued a “kill alert” for the photo, saying its staff had detected changes that did not meet its standards. The Princess of Wales later apologized for the confusion, saying she was experimenting with editing “like many amateur photographers”.
The episode prompted news outlets to reexamine their policies, Mr. Newman said, and reevaluate which sources were reliable. “The whole question of whether you can believe what you see is certainly not as clear as it used to be.”
“There is a trust deficit in society, at least in the United States,” Professor Subrahmanian said. “Deepfakes have the potential to widen this trust deficit.”
