While we don’t try and scare you too much on our site, outside of telling you about truly bad games that should’ve “cooked more” instead of coming out in broken states or about companies who are clearly all about greed instead of making quality titles, there are some elements of our world that are simply too scary NOT to talk about. One such thing is deepfake technology. It’s several kinds of software that are all about taking a person’s likeness and putting it somewhere else or making it seem like they’re doing/saying something when they’re not. Even Roblox is worried about things like this.
While it’s become a popular plot thread in things like TV shows and movies, it’s a real-world threat to many people, and with technology growing every year, especially with the advent of new AI tools, it’s important to try and nip things like this in the bud before more people are hurt. To that end, the US government is trying to make a law labeled “Take It Down” that would force non-consensual content featuring deepfakes to be taken off the internet, including places where the videos would spread like wildfire, such as social media platforms.
The Roblox CEO, David Baszucki, shared his support of the “Take It Down Act” via this statement:
“The ability to rapidly share images and videos is one of the reasons the internet can be a complex and dangerous place for children. This content is incredibly sensitive, and we need greater government oversight for apps that allow image and video sharing. Currently, Roblox does not support this functionality.”
While it may seem odd for this particular game to voice such concerns, you need to remember the “freedom” that players and creators have in this universe. They’re allowed to put just about anything in the game without immediate backlash. You may recall that celebrity Kim Kardashian made an infamous tape that helped launch her career in certain ways. That tape was later put into the game via one of the players’ worlds, and she railed against it because it meant that one of her kids could see the video if they went into that particular world.
The same principle would apply with deepfake videos, as anyone could create a video and then post it for all to see in a “seemingly random place,” but it would be out there.
While the law has been deemed “controversial” by certain groups, it’s clear that this game feels it’s the right path to take forward.
