In an attempt to combat misinformation spread through photos and videos, Instagram is adding a "False Information" warning to the platform.
Using a combination of reporting and user automation, suspicious content will be sent to independent verifiers for review and flagged as "false" if applicable.
According to Instagram, the content will be flagged as potentially false by "a combination of comments from our community and technology". So, if independent third-party verifiers identify that the content is actually fake, three things happen:
- The photo or video is removed from the Explore and Hashtag pages to "reduce its distribution"
- The photo will have the "False Information" label on an overlay that won't even let you see the photo or video.
- Anyone trying to post the same photo will receive a warning that they are about to share false information.
But it seems that now, the feature is hiding all photos that have undergone some kind of editing, whether it's an overlay or color change, flagging them as "false information".
This could affect everyone who uses Instagram to showcase their creative portfolio, digital works and image compositions.
San Francisco photographer Toby Harriman recently identified, browsing his main feed, an image from the Mix Society, hidden and flagged as "false information".
When visiting the profile in question, he saw that the image was a digital art: a photo of a man standing in the rainbow-colored mountains, published by the MIX Society.
View this photo on Instagram
???????????? Would you rather be here right now? ???? • ????: DM for credit • ???? Follow for more! @mixsociety_ · · ·
A post shared by MIX Society (@mixsociety_) on Jan 10, 2020 at 8:02 PM PST
Currently, the photo has been shown again, but before it was flagged as "false information".
When looking directly at the MIX Society profile, the photo was visible among others. But just touching the photo the information of "false information" appeared on the photo hiding its content.
The question here is how far the verification feature goes, as what you've just seen can happen to any Instagram user who makes modifications to real photos, change a person's eye color, alter a scene that records a lake. or pool and its color is changed, any modification can be identified as a "fake image".
The presence of the tool is important, but when it can hide real images that have undergone artistic modifications from the Explore and Hashtag pages, it can cause some frustration for content creators.
Toby Harriman noted that the only difference in the profile used as an example is that the other images have a hashtag #conceptart, of course they were photoshopped or there is clear credit to the artist and the "rainbow mountain" photo is the the only one that at the time had no credits or affirmation that it is digital art through hashtag.
So if you're doing collages, digital art, or compositing, you can go through this check and have your content flagged and hidden. But everything indicates that if you indicate that the content has been edited or assembled this can somehow help you.
