This initiative is the second of its kind since the publication, at the end of January, of an open letter denouncing the multiplication, over the past year, of content produced via artificial intelligence, on the Second World War and concentration camps. The signatories are concerned about content which “distorts history by trivializing it and transforming it into kitsch” and “questions authentic historical documents”, they write, denouncing the risk, in certain cases, of a “denial of Nazi crimes”.
Trivializing or denying crimes
Example with this photo of a prisoner from Auschwitz-Birkenau playing the violin among his fellow inmates, or the photo of a prisoner in good health, a kippah on his head, supposedly taken at the Sachsenhausen camp. Nonsense when you know the living conditions there. But there is also this video where an Anne Frank with slightly aged features – the teenager died at the age of 15 at the Bergen-Belsen camp – calls with a voice close to natural to “not forget what happened”. “At first, it was easy to identify fake photos and videos, but with the development of artificial intelligence tools, it is becoming more and more complicated, even for experts like me”notes Alina Bothe of the Selma Stern Center for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg.
“It’s not a game. These are real people we need to commemorate”: AI is hijacking the Holocaust on social media
“The creators of this content do not necessarily all have bad intentions. Some aim to create emotion, and that can be the starting point for a debate, but the problem concerns those who act for money. Because the theme of Nazism generates a lot of clicks and revenue. Here, the economic model of social media is clearly in question. There are also those who use it. l’IA to modify history, trivialize it, or deny crimes. This is the greatest danger, because fakes create doubt in people’s minds.”believes this historian.
Mark as false
At the Buchenwald memorial, we take the problem very seriously. “It’s a bottomless pit”notes Rikola Gunnar Lüttgenau, spokesperson for this place of memory which is counting on putting its 10,000 archive photos online. “Our mission is to counter the flow of fakes, by establishing ourselves as a reference for all those who want visual content from the period on the camp. Demand is increasing sharply, because people doubt what is circulating on the web”he adds. However, not all memorials share this opinion; some fear their archives being put online and possible pirating.
Since the publication of the letter in January, which asked platforms to better control their content, little has progressed. American Meta released a statement saying it took the matter seriously, but only some content and accounts were closed. Only Tik Tok Germany dialogues with the institutions in question and has even participated in the creation of a site, Shoahstories.
“We live in a stupid society that created Auschwitz-Birkenau, and I am convinced that it could happen again”
“The next step must be European”estime Astrid Homann, you Memorial de Sachsenhausen. “Regulation of platforms must be stricter, so that they remove this falsified content or are forced to mark it as false”she adds. Regulations to this effect were initially to be presented this summer by Brussels. The date has been postponed.
