Years and years (Broadcast deepfake issue)

Brief description

Daniel is watching the news, after his sister suggests a way to smuggle his boyfriend out of Spain and back into England. He lies on the bed, desolutely switching through news broadcasts. The news anchor shows two examples of deepfake videos of politicians. The anchor asks Vivienne Rook whether she agrees that the videos are fake and she says yes, but that they did really say those things. Later Rook is elected prime minister of Great Britain. (Episode 4, about 16 minutes in)

Viv Rook is shown as hugely benefitting from the deep fakes - she has apparently not been targeted herself, and she certainly knows how to frame the deepfakes to her benefit (they're fake - but true!). This is a parallel to how some politicians benefit from bot farms and paid trolls today, claiming no responsibility - yet they benefit from the situation. Also note the contrast between Daniel lying sad on the sofa, in the dark, zapping between channels, and these outrageous stories. Seeing this news story apparently spurs him to decide to go and rescue his boyfriend - there's no clear causality, but the events are certainly positioned together in time.

Pull Quotes

News anchor: So you are saying these videos are fake? Vivienne Rook: "Oh of course they’re fake videos, anyone can see that, they’re not real! All the same. They really did say those things…didn’t they?"

Work that the situation appears in

Title Publication Type Year Creator
Years and Years Narrative, TV series or episode Russel T Davies
Aesthetic characteristics
Colours
Machine P.O.V
Not machine P.O.V.

Authored by

UUID
00ca2f45-365c-4a77-b722-4bf182c4fe3f