Authenticity matters! How to make sure something is accurate
Varying approaches to countering disinformation
There are two primary approaches when it comes to tackling the issue of countering disinformation: one revolves around the detection of manipulation or false information, verifying content in a reliable and efficient manner, while another approach focusses on guaranteeing the authenticity of content originating from trusted sources.
The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) takes the second approach by hardwiring credentials into content.
About C2PA
Established in 2021, the C2PA is developing an open technical standard to certify the origin and history of digital media files, using content credentials: a secure annotation system that documents the provenance of images, videos, and audio throughout their lifecycle by capturing essential information – such as capture device details, editing history, and distribution pathways – and making this data accessible to end users on publishing platforms.
The C2PA specification, first released in 2022 and now evolving to include AI-generated content, has garnered significant market interest and is supported by a growing number and respective membership of major technological companies, news organisations, and hardware manufacturers.
The EBU took a closer look and did a deep dive
With this as a backdrop the vera.ai project consortium partner EBU has produced a report entitled “Content Provenance and Authentication for Trusted Content with C2PA”.
The report takes a closer look at how vera.ai and C2PA supplementing each other could look like. The potential integration of C2PA’s architecture into parts of the vera.ai ecosystem could potentially lead the project to benefit from an interoperable, industry-backed solution for secure metadata and verifiable media assets, therewith reinforcing its long-term impact and sustainability.
The report furthermore provides deeper insights into the aims, ambitions, and operation of the C2PA: it outlines how it works and can be used, points out challenges and opportunities, and provides concrete use cases of C2PA in a journalistic context. Finally, proofs of concepts for potential integrations of C2PA with vera.ai tools are given.
Below you can find the report authored by EBU staff in full (also accessible via this link). For further information and to get in touch with its authors, feel free to contact the EBU's Hans Hoffmann.
Authors: Hans Hoffmann / Lalya Gaye (EBU)
Editor: Jochen Spangenberg (DW)
