---
title: "Facebook Bans All Deepfakes"
description: "Facebook has officially announced it's planning to ban and remove all deepfakes uploaded to its platform, the BBC reports."
date: "2020-01-07"
modified: "2020-01-07"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-bans-all-deepfakes"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "deepfakes"
  - "facebook"
  - "the digest"
---

# Facebook Bans All Deepfakes

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/facebook-ban-deepfakes.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Ban Hammer

Facebook [announced Monday](<https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/enforcing-against-manipulated-media/>) that it's planning to ban and remove all deepfakes uploaded to its platform.

Facebook's vice president of global policy management Monika Bickert wrote in the post that the social network was banning "both deepfakes and all types of manipulated media." Facebook is hoping to address the issue by "partnering with academia, government and industry" and even "exposing people behind these efforts."

## Manipulated Media

The announcement comes just over a month after China [declared](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-makes-deepfakes-illegal>) the passing of deepfakes as legitimate illegal. Experts [have argued](<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2019/jun/22/the-rise-of-the-deepfake-and-the-threat-to-democracy>) they have the potential to undermine democracy by [misleading voters](<https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/15/deepfakes-could-be-problem-for-the-2020-election.html>) with AI-generated propaganda — a pertinent topic in light of the 2020 elections in the U.S.

To rid its platform of deepfakes, Facebook claims to have consulted with more than 50 global experts to "improve the science of detecting manipulated media."

## Wrongfully Removed

If a video is determined to be wrongfully removed, a third party fact-checker may review it. If the video is "rated false or partly false by a fact-checker," Facebook will label the video as false and keep it up as a warning to its users, according to the blog post.

In September, Facebook challenged researchers to come up with a deepfakes detector as part of the "Deepfake Detection Challenge." The winning team will get a portion of Facebook's $10 million investment in the project. The social media network has yet to declare a winner.

**READ MORE:** [Facebook to ban 'deepfakes'](<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51018758>) \[*BBC*\]

**More on deepfakes:** *[China Makes Deepfakes Illegal](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-makes-deepfakes-illegal>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)