Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

What are deepfakes and why are they a concern?

The digitally rendered Queen dances (Channel 4)
The digitally rendered Queen dances (Channel 4)

Things do not appear as they seem on this year’s Channel 4 alternative Christmas message.

The broadcaster has decided to raise awareness of deepfake technology for 2020, showing a false depiction of the Queen.

So what are deepfakes and why are they of concern?

Alternative Christmas Message 2020
Deepfake of the Queen in Channel 4’s alternative Christmas message (Channel 4/PA)

Deepfakes use ever-improving artificial intelligence and machine learning, allowing people to combine and superimpose existing images and videos of a person to make it look like they have said something they have not.

While these can often be used as humour, they are also open to abuse by those aiming to deceive others, particularly in politics.

Despite renewed concern about misinformation in the past year due to the pandemic, there have been no notable cases of deepfakes used to spread fake news about the coronavirus reported as yet.

It is possible to tell if a video is deepfake as faces do not always look quite right but they are getting harder to spot as the technology evolves.

Facebook came under the spotlight in 2018 for allowing an altered video of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remain on its platform and go viral, which made the congresswoman’s speech appear slurred.

Social network chief Mark Zuckerberg later admitted Facebook took too long to notice the edited video and ultimately decided to crack down on deepfake videos in the lead-up to the 2020 US presidential election.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been victim of a deepfake video which went viral on social media
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been victim of a deepfake video which went viral on social media (Liam McBurney/PA)

Google revealed in September 2019 that it had created thousands of manipulated deepfake videos with actors, in a bid to help researchers build and train automated detection systems to spot clips.

According to research by Sensity.ai for a Channel 4 Deepfakes documentary into the matter, more than 60,000 deepfake videos were identified on the internet in the last 12 months.

“The UK, it is a very significant target,” said Sensity’s Giorgio Patrini.

“If you look at worldwide statistics, we actually calculated about a 10% of the deep fake video, that we know of on the internet, would feature victims that are British nationals.

“Most of the targets, most of the victims that we see in the fakes are coming from the entertainment industry, the reason why we see that UK up there in the statistic is mainly due to the exposure of the British culture around the world, because that make interesting to feature those people in a video.”

Deepfakes: Can You Believe Your Eyes airs on Channel 4 on December 28.