Products > Security

New York Times wants to use Blockchain to stamp out fake news

(1/2) > >>

windsmurf:
Technology Review summary:
https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614007/the-new-york-times-thinks-a-blockchain-could-help-stamp-out-fake-news/


Full NY Times Project announcement:
https://open.nytimes.com/introducing-the-news-provenance-project-723dbaf07c44

Bud:
I do not see hows this a protection from fake news. Proofing an artefact from been altered is not the same as proofing it  was not a fake in its origin.

windsmurf:

--- Quote from: Bud on July 26, 2019, 02:54:32 am ---I do not see hows this a protection from fake news. Proofing an artefact from been altered is not the same as proofing it  was not a fake in its origin.

--- End quote ---

Its best used for larger files, such as photos and videos.  With it, you can authenticate the photo or video to have come from the NY times, with contextual information and date  included in the chain, so that it isn't misused. 

Of course for this to work fully, we need all news organizations to adopt it, so they can place their photos/videos in a blockchain with contextual information.
Once adoption passes a certain point, then people will learn to trust photos/videos that have blockchain traceability.  And altered photos/videos/deepfakes not being traceable to a credible source will become less trustworthy. 

Full explanation is on the 2nd link, which again is : https://open.nytimes.com/introducing-the-news-provenance-project-723dbaf07c44

Bud:
Yes i have checked the link. What you are saying is you ultimately trust the origin of artefacts placed in the blockchain, in this case NY Times. My comment was about challenging that ultimate trust. The artefacts may not be genuine in the first place.

windsmurf:

--- Quote from: Bud on July 26, 2019, 03:23:06 am ---Yes i have checked the link. What you are saying is you ultimately trust the origin of artefacts placed in the blockchain, in this case NY Times. My comment was about challenging that ultimate trust. The artefacts may not be genuine in the first place.

--- End quote ---

They don't post specifics, but they say that the photo will be published in the blockchain... I take it to mean the entire photo will be contained in the chain.  So then you have a set of authenticating servers owned and operated independently by many publishers where each one has a copy. The user presumably would have a web browser with a trusted plug-in that does validation of the photo/video behind the scenes, validating them against multiple independently operated servers to prove authenticity. 
I'm not a blockchain expert and I'm sure it's probably more involved than this and there's probably some optimization solutions involved.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page