Tech to Combat Disinformation on Natural Disasters Adopted by Japan Communications Ministry; Aims to Identify Fake Content on Internet

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, July 3, 2024

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry announced Tuesday that it has adopted six projects through a public offering to support the development of technologies to counter disinformation and misinformation on the internet.

Among them is the project by the Originator Profile Collaborative Innovation Partnership (OPCIP) that is developing Originator Profile (OP), a digital technology that identifies the disseminators of information on the internet.

Given that many false rescue requests were posted on social media in the wake of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in January, OPCIP proposed the use of OP to counter disinformation in areas affected by natural disasters. The organization plans to carry out demonstration experiments using OP technology for the dissemination of information, with support from local governments in the affected areas of Ishikawa Prefecture and other regions.

OP is a technology that allows users to verify the source of information by attaching originator information to articles and advertisements on the internet. The technology is expected to be used to identify fake information.

With generative artificial intelligence (AI) making it easy for anyone to create sophisticated fake images and other content, the government is focusing on establishing technologies to prevent the spread of disinformation.

In this public offering, projects to develop technologies for identifying videos and images created with generative AI were also selected. Each project will receive up to ¥150 million for technology development and demonstration experiments.