More than 60 countries around the world will hold national and regional elections this year, making 2024 the biggest election year in history. But there are growing concerns that disinformation and disinformation, largely driven by artificial intelligence (AI), will influence the election.
An example of this occurred recently when an AI call using US President Joe Biden’s voice called thousands of people in the US.
Findings from the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2024 further show that disinformation and disinformation are likely to be one of the top global risks over the next two years.
The report states that “both foreign and domestic actors will use disinformation and disinformation to deepen social and political divisions.”
The report also noted that this risk will be even greater as a large number of elections will take place in the near future as more than 3 billion people will go to the polls in 2024 and 2025.
Blockchain deployed for data verification
While misleading information poses a major global threat, industry experts have pointed out that blockchain technology can play an important role in combating this challenge.
Paul Brody, Global Blockchain Lead for Ernst & Young (EY), told Cryptonews that he, like many people, believes this year could break records for fake news.
To that end, Brody explained that EY has developed a blockchain-based traceability solution called “OpsChain,” which performs the notarization of documents through a series of APIs.
“OpsChain runs on top of Ethereum’s public infrastructure,” Brody said. “The solution hashes and timestamps documents and places that information on the blockchain for verification.”
The EY Ops Chain Public Edition prototype allows companies to securely transact on a shared #publicblockchain. Find out how this new application will drive #blockchain adoption. https://t.co/OzuchF7BUw pic.twitter.com/D4s7Qi6mO0
— EY (@EYnews) October 31, 2018
Brody said that OpsChain is currently being used by ANSA, an Italian news agency that generates more than 1 million articles per year. According to an EY blog post, when an editor publishes a news story on ANSA, it is entered into the OpsChain system with an ID and publication details. All this information is stored as an immutable block on Ethereum.
When a story is published online, it comes with an ‘ANSACheck’ sticker, which allows readers to see who wrote the article and whether it has been republished.
“Readers can take the full text of an article on ANSA and verify that it is original,” Brody said.
This is important, as Brody added that the same process can be applied to election data.
“If you put data into a public ecosystem, you want it to be demonstrably independent of other parties. EY’s goal is to make this simple by using APIs,” he says. “This allows any entity to create timestamps for data on the Ethereum blockchain. All transactions are confirmed within 15 seconds of execution.” .
The role of cryptography in verifying data
David Sneider, co-founder of Lit Protocol, told Cryptonews that cryptographic signatures can also be used to authenticate data.
Sneider explained that Lit Protocol, a distributed key management network, does this by using “multi-party computation (MPC) threshold secret schemes” to cryptographically sign documents and other items.
“’Multi-party computation (MPC) threshold secret schemes’ essentially means taking key material and splitting it into different parts so that no centralized custodian has access,” Sneider said. “In the case of Lit Protocol, 20 of the 30 node operators can generate authorization to use the underlying key to sign something for data verification.”
Sneider explained that Lit Protocol’s partners using the technology are known as “publishers” because they have access to the decentralized key. These publishers can then create verifiable references, or prove that the data is accurate.
“One of our ecosystem partners uses Lit Protocol to cryptographically say that a cryptocurrency address is associated with a particular Twitter account,” Sneider noted.
Additionally, Stanford University’s Starling Lab for Data Integrity applies the Lit Protocol to journalism for data verification and privacy.
“Journalists in areas prone to censorship can privately and anonymously publish media content in places where internet access is restricted,” Sneider said.
While this solution is not applied to election data, Sneider pointed out that it could be used to ensure that publications or videos come from election candidates or government officials.
Interestingly, White House Special Advisor on AI Ben Buchanan recently stated that US government officials are exploring cryptographic authentication methods to combat deep fakes.
Additionally, Sneider said blockchain could be applied to cryptographic signing to serve as a time stamp for when data was actually verified.
“A blockchain is a global clock that allows us to create a time stamp and evidence of when, for example, certain content has been published,” he said.
Digital fingerprints for data verification
While blockchain and cryptography provide immutable verification of data, other emerging technologies are also stepping in to combat disinformation. Digital fingerprints have become one such solution that can be combined with blockchain technology, providing a way to clearly identify and authenticate content. As the election approaches, these methods could prove crucial in maintaining data integrity in organizations and media.
Mariale Montenegro, founder and CEO of Mentaport, told Cryptonews that Mentaport uses such technology to ensure data verification. According to Montenegro, Mentaport uses digital fingerprint technology to embed a unique identifier into the content metadata.
“This identification is securely linked to the blockchain, creating an immutable certificate that verifies the origin, ownership and authenticity of the content,” Montenegro said.
Although Mentaport is still in private beta, Montenegro explained that a news organization could use the solution to verify content.
“Before publication, the content is submitted to the Mentaport platform, where it is analyzed and certified as authentic,” she said. “The certification, along with the metadata of the content, is then recorded on the blockchain.”
Once the data is posted to the blockchain, Montenegro explained that readers can verify the authenticity of the content through Mentaport because everything posted to the blockchain is transparent and open.
While the same can be applied to election-generated content, Montenegro explained that the decision to move from a private beta to a wider launch will be based on ensuring that the technology not only meets the expectations of current users and stakeholders , but this one even surpasses it.
Will government agencies use Blockchain solutions?
While the potential for blockchain-based solutions is clear, the question remains whether government agencies involved in the upcoming elections would want to leverage this technology.
“The main obstacle we face today is that government agencies, especially election organizations, are unable to embrace state-of-the-art technology,” Brody said.
While Brody said it’s reasonable to be cautious about new technology, he pointed out that he hopes to see more adoption this year because of the growing amount of false information.
Sneider added that while there is interest in cryptographic verification from the White House, standards still need to be developed.
According to Sneider, this is currently underway, as he shared that The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is implementing standards regarding authenticity and provenance.
“In the coming months, this will be more useful to creators and publishers,” he said.
But even if standards are in place, Sneider believes a new challenge will arise once it becomes common for documents to be cryptographically signed for verification.
“If everything that is published is cryptographically signed, the question might arise, does the fact that the data is signed mean it is authentic? Someone should check who signed the data and where the cryptographic key is located,” Sneider said.
Additionally, while blockchain verification processes are efficient, the technology is not always easy to use. Brody pointed out that this is why EY currently uses an API model.
“OpsChain has actually been around for years, but EY recently moved to a full API model to make it easy for others to adopt and test it,” he said.
Sneider said Fox Corporation also uses Lit Protocol’s verification process and authenticity check.
It has also been reported that Fox is partnering with Polygon Labs to use Verify, an open source platform designed to verify the authenticity of content and track its usage across the web.
Sneider believes that similar methods will be applied to different companies and products in the future.
“As we move into a world with more generative counterfeits, this model will be part of the browsing experience,” he said. “Websites will show the source of the content in their feeds, rather than individuals visiting an entirely different website to see the verification.”