Technologies to Make Content Safe Again

Trust is the foundation of the digital economy and the communications industry, but it’s being steadily eroded.

A 2023 Pew Research study, shows only 28% of Americans felt very or somewhat confident in determining if online content is genuine, down from 39% in 2014. The rise of generative AI is turbocharging brand imposter content, deep fake videos, and criminal fraud.

The consequences are real and expensive. Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services predicts that gen AI could enable fraud losses to reach US$40 billion in the United States by 2027, up from US$12.3 billion in 2023. 

Technology also offers a path to greater digital security. A trifecta of personhood verification, content provenance authentication, and the creation of safe spaces to build trust in content, has not received the same attention in the communications industry as the rise of generative AI. But it should. We write about this in more detail in a new article in CommPRO.biz, AI's Digital Gold Rush is Fueling a Trust Crisis. 

Personhood Verification

User identity verification is far from new, but its adoption is increasing. There are a growing number of approaches being used to verify digital identity by companies including DocuSign and LinkedIn. The use of government identity documents to validate identity is increasingly widespread, along with biometric data.

Although it is possible to fake verification, the barriers to fraud are higher with security measures in place. While identity verification addresses the problem of the ability to trust the identity of the person or company, it doesn’t necessarily provide a mechanism for determining who produced the content.

Content Provenance Authentication

The ability to authenticate the provenance of digital content is an important focus of some of the largest technology and media companies in the world.

There is a tremendous amount of work going on in this space driven largely by the Content Authenticity initiative (CAI), which is supported by Adobe. Tauth.io is a CAI member. It is one of a number of technology companies developing authentication solutions focused on building trust around the provenance of digital documents.

Companies are using C2PA open-source protocols and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to create robust, irrevocable digital signatures built into content based on the confirmation of the unique identity of the author. This is carried in its metadata in the form of a digital watermark. Once a document has been authenticated by the publisher, a blockchain hash can be created.

The key to the success of this process is simplicity for the end user. Applications will enable one-click signing and authentication. When users open documents, browser plug-ins will recognize that the document has been authenticated and is trustworthy. The digital watermark provides the link to the blockchain record for the user to determine its author and changes that may have been made. 

Imagine a press release, fact sheet or marketing document with a Tauth authentication watermark that shows it was produced by the individual or company issuing it wherever it goes on its digital journey. Once a document has been signed, the metadata provides a basis for a range of tools to, for example, register copyright and identify unsanctioned or fraudulent uses of documents.

The emerging discipline of provenance authentication is well-suited to specific applications and use cases, but is not one-size fits all.

Digital Safe Spaces                                                 

The increasing adoption of user verification by social media platforms reflects efforts to create safer spaces. Since the business dynamics of social media favor mass audiences rather than narrow, focused ones, this has generally meant that verification has taken a back seat to getting as many people on the platforms as possible. 

This has created an opportunity for focused platforms creating safe spaces from scratch. Media.com is an example of a community of verified users in which content can be trusted and as a result is more likely to resonate. The company combines user verification (personhood verification) on its platform with content moderation. Technology solutions will help simplify and drive the user-verification process for similar platforms and drive adoption.

User verification, the authentication of content provenance, and safe-space communities all have a critical role to play if we are to maintain trust in content and make it safe again.

As the use of AI ramps up, we can expect to see greater focus on digital safety. Developments on both sides will be synergistic and are likely to maintain the system’s balance. As we conclude in CommPRO, “Ultimately, this will ensure that the digital economy will not grind to a halt, but continue to thrive.”

Simon Erskine Locke, is Founder and CEO of CommunicationsMatch™ and co-founder and CEO of Tauth.io. He is a serial entrepreneur and former head of communications at some of the world’s leading financial institutions. M. Danish Bilal, co-founder and chief technology officer of Tauth.io, is a data scientist and Blockchain expert.