Our picksCombatting Deep Fakes; where the Brownshirts came from; FBI & the San Bernardino iPhone, and more

Combatting Deep Fakes through the right of publicity (Jesse Lempel, Lawfare) Fake news is bad enough already, but something much nastier is just around the corner: As Evelyn Douek explained, the “next frontier” of fake news will feature machine-learning software that can cheaply produce convincing audio or video of almost anyone saying or doing just about anything. These may be “digital avatars” built from generative adversarial networks (GANs), or they may rely on simpler face-swapping technology to create “deep fakes.” The effect is the same: fake videos that look frighteningly real. Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron recently sounded the alarm on Lawfare about the threat to democracy from “deep fakes,” lamenting “the limits of technological and legal solutions.” But in fact, a loophole built into Section 230 immunity—the intellectual property exception—could be helpful in combating deep fakes and other next-generation fake news. Victims of deep fakes may successfully bring “right of publicity” claims against online platforms, thereby forcing the platforms to systematically police such content.

The grim conclusions of the largest-ever study of fake news (Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic)
Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.

Where the Brownshirts came from (James H. Barnett, Weekly Standard)
Daniel Siemens’s Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler’s Brownshirts, a superbly detailed account of the Sturmabteilung (SA), paints a frightening portrait of a million-member organization. the group made a name for itself early on through its members’ actions as self-styled border guards in Upper Silesia, a region that saw turmoil in the Weimar years as ethnic Poles agitated for inclusion into the newly founded Second Polish Republic next door. Of course, the phenomenon of far-right militias taking up the mantle of “border defense” in the face of migrant influxes is hardly a thing of the past. Present-day groups such as the BNO Shipka in Bulgaria or any of the sundry militias in the Arizona desert similarly seek to supplant the democratic state as the protector of the “people” and the “homeland.” While there is no group of equivalent influence to the SA in America today (several European countries must contend with something much nearer), histories like Siemens’s should give pause to those who would think that the problem of far-right violence will disappear if we simply dismiss it as the actions of a few thugs. After all, this was precisely how most Weimar conservatives treated the SA: as young hooligans excessive in their nationalist zeal.

Revelations on the FBI’s unlocking of the San Bernardino iPhone: Maybe the future isn’t going dark after all (Susan Landau, Lawfare)
The recent IG report presents the FBI’s failure to open the phone not as technical inability to do so, but rather as a result of lackluster effort, and, in one crucial instance, a clear unwillingness to fully search for a solution.

Early warning tools needed for chem-bio defense (Vivienne Machi, National Defense)
The U.S. military is in need of new tools that can provide early warning for chemical and biological contamination on the battlefield and connect to commanders’ networks, one defense official said.

After London, how lasers will play a role in detecting chemical attacks sooner (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
A new technique can detect trace elements of dangerous chemicals in extremely small doses, a breakthrough of relevance to the horror show playing out in Salisbury, U.K.

Mexico earthquake devastation spurs California cities to action, despite the costs (Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times)
As more cities weigh seismic retrofit laws — to protect both lives and the region’s limited housing supply — many owner and tenant groups in the Los Angeles area generally agree that earthquake strengthening should be done.

Here’s how much money states will receive for election security upgrades (Sean Lyngaas, Cyberscoop)
The Trump administration has told states exactly how much of a $380 million fund they will get to make their voting systems more cyber-secure ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. The funding, made available through a $1.3 trillion omnibus package passed last week, is one of Congress’s first major steps to prevent a repeat of Russian hackers’ meddling in U.S. elections.

Will there be a government standard for IoT security? (Phil Goldstein, FedTech)
NIST offers its view on Internet of Things security guidelines, but lawmakers are pressing for mandates that would regulate cybersecurity for IoT devices.