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Adobe, Twitter, NYT Launch Content Authenticity Initiative

In a world where AI-enabled deepfakes are commonplace and photos can be easily manipulated, it’s becoming more difficult to know whether the content your viewing is authentic or not. Adobe is looking to change that.

The company has announced a new initiative with The New York Times Co. and Twitter that develops an industry standard for digital content attribution, giving content creators and publishers an opt-in system to attach attribution data to content they create and share.

Dubbed the Content Authenticity Initiative, the solution will give authors the ability to verify their content, receiving proper attribution, and proving consumers with an attribution trail to verify the authenticity of the content they’re consuming. Adobe demonstrated a prototype of its content attribution technology embedded in Photoshop at its Adobe MAX event.

“With the proliferation of digital content, people want to know the content they’re seeing is authentic,” said Dana Rao, EVP and general counsel for Adobe. “While this is a formidable challenge, we are thrilled to be championing the adoption of an industry-wide content attribution system, along with The New York Times Company and Twitter. It is critical for technology and media companies to come together now in order to empower consumers to better evaluate and understand content online.”

Adobe sees the long-term solution being a shared responsibility for content creators, technology firms and media companies, with more partners coming on boards in the coming months.

“Serving and enhancing global public conversation is our core mission at Twitter,” said Del Harvey, VP of global trust and safety for Twitter. “We’re excited to work with Adobe and The New York Times Company to find new and innovative ways to support our existing efforts. Everyone has a role to play in information quality and media literacy. Collaboration on issues as complex as this is key — we welcome the partnership.”

Marc Lavallee, head of research and development for The New York Times Company, added: “Discerning trusted news on the internet is one of the biggest challenges news consumers face today. Combating misinformation will require the entire ecosystem — creators, publishers and platforms — to work together. This initiative lays the groundwork for doing that through open standards and protocols.”

For more information about the Content Authenticity Initiative, click here , or email [email protected].