Honest Abe on Deepfakes: A Message from the 16th President
A message to political candidates in the voice of Abraham Lincoln
My fellow Americans, permit me to address a most pressing concern of this modern age.
Do your voters truly trust you? 'Tis the paramount question of this election season. For how can they place their faith in you when they cannot even trust the evidence of their own eyes?
Deepfake deceptions are inundating the vast expanse of the internet, much like a flood upon the prairies. And behold, these are no longer mere shadowy illusions, but cunning instruments of political warfare.
The Grave Peril We Face
A learned inquiry from the National Institutes of Health reveals a grave peril, indeed a peril as vast as the Mississippi:
Most folks fancy themselves adept at discerning these falsehoods, yet the stark truth is that scarcely a quarter among us can truly spot them.
This menace is no distant thunder on the horizon. It thunders upon us even now, a veritable slayer of campaigns. The technology has grown so sophisticated that your very countenance and voice can be commandeered by those who would do you harm.
A Vigilant Safeguard
But fear not, for there exists a vigilant safeguard, and it is named not.bot.
Envision it as a digital seal of authenticity, a unique emblem for all your campaign's genuine proclamations. Much as I once signed the Emancipation Proclamation to give it the weight of Presidential authority, you may now sign your digital communications to prove their authenticity.
How This Safeguard Operates
The process is remarkably straightforward:
- Prove your identity — Verify you are indeed who you claim to be
- Create your unique seal — Obtain a digital signature that belongs to you alone
- Affix it to your communications — Place this not.bot mark upon your true videos and dispatches across the social ether
This establishes a new decree for campaigns, plain and unyielding for your aides, the press, and above all, your electorate: Heed the mark.
Training Your Voters to Spot Deception
By affixing your seal to every authentic communication, you educate your voters to unmask the counterfeit, fostering a realm where truth prevails:
- If the mark graces the content, 'tis genuine
- Absent the mark, beware the imposter
Thus, you invert the deepfake's deceitful script. The lack of your seal becomes the clarion warning, halting those pernicious untruths ere they spread like wildfire across the prairie.
A Personal Data Safeguard
And mark this well: your personal data remains upon your own device, never stored in some distant repository where it might be purloined by brigands or sold to the highest bidder.
As I have long believed in the sovereignty of the individual, so too does this system honor your privacy whilst providing the verification your campaign requires.
The Wisdom of the Ages
As I once observed, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
Yet with not.bot, we ensure the deceivers fool none for long. When every authentic message bears your seal, and every unsealed message is revealed as suspect, the very foundation of deception crumbles.
The Hour Has Come
The hour has come to fortify your campaign and quell the falsehoods.
In my time, we fought to preserve the Union and ensure that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. In your time, you fight to ensure that truth itself does not perish from the digital realm.
'Tis a worthy fight, and one you can win.
Proceed to not.bot and erect your bulwark this very day.
With great hope for the Republic, A. Lincoln
Editor's Note: While this article is written in the voice of Abraham Lincoln for illustrative purposes, the threat to political campaigns is very real. Deepfakes targeting political candidates increased by over 900% in the 2024 election cycle, according to security researchers. Digital authentication tools provide candidates with a proactive defense against misinformation.
Watch on YouTube: Honest Abe on Deepfakes