Stephen Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon & East Thurrock, has sponsored the BBC Blue Room, the media technology wing of the BBC, in Parliament.
On 30 November, the BBC Blue Room hosted an event in Parliament to inform MPs and researchers on the latest technologies affecting Britain’s media landscape. Stephen Metcalfe’s Parliamentary Office acted as an intermediary sponsor of the event, organising access to the Houses of Parliament and ensuring there were no barriers to the BBC crew.
The BBC Blue Room’s mission is to monitor user engagement, online trends, emerging technologies, and potential threats to honest reporting by nefarious actors who use deepfake technology.
During the event, the BBC Blue Room team informed MPs on the sophisticated technology that can easily be used to distort news stories or create news stories that never happened. For example, there were recently videos of the Ukrainian President Zelensky circulating online that showed him surrendering when the opposite was true. Just because a video looks authentic, it does not mean it is – this is a serious new development that poses immense challenges for the UK as a democracy.
The BBC Blue Room highlighted that it was working to closely monitor the use of ‘Synthetic Media’ and deepfake technology, carrying out experiments to investigate its programming and application online. Artificial Intelligence can be positive and productive but sometimes it can be dangerous.
Also in discussion at the BBC Blue Room event were the UK’s laws around so-called ‘prominence’. On Terrestrial TV, British public service broadcasters (the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) take ‘prominence’ on channel listings according to the Communication Act 2003. The BBC is campaigning to expand this ‘prominence’ clause to Smart TV operating systems so that users see British public service broadcasters’ apps before any other apps. However, this is a debate for another day!
Stephen Metcalfe said: “A big thanks to the BBC Blue Room for hosting such an informative event. I am sure that the attendees left with a new understanding of synthetic media. I am glad the BBC is active in this area and informing Members of Parliament about the risks associated with deepfake technology.”
