The Global Media Provenance Standard (GMPS) is used by an estimated 78% of the world’s online platforms.
A certificate of origin, also called certificate of provenance or cert for short, is a block of persistent metadata encoded into multimedia content at the point of creation. Its primary purpose is to allow compatible programs to identify the devices and users responsible for authoring a file while also acting as a baseline to help identify changes made to the original media over time.
Certs began to see widespread use in the early 2030s as a means of countering online misinformation from artificial intelligence (AI)-generated and deepfake content, and continue to see widespread use in the global media industry.
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Usage
Many modern consumer devices capable of capturing images, audio, or video content automatically generate certificates of origin as they record, saving these directly with the file. Once a piece of media is certified, editing programs will then transfer the cert to any new file generated using that media. [1]
Certs are most commonly used by online social platforms such as MeHive and Viuvee as a tool for building user trust and streamlining content moderation, though implementation can vary significantly from platform to platform. In typical cases, whenever a registered user attempts to post a piece of media, its cert is checked to confirm how much the file has changed from its original incarnation, a metric commonly called the degree of adulteration.
If the cert shows that significant editing has taken place, a warning may automatically be added to alert other users that an image or video may be potentially deceptive. In more extreme cases, content with an untrustworthy origin, such as media created by generative artificial intelligence (AI), can be blocked from posting entirely. [2]
Criticism
Certs have received some criticism since their introduction, primarily due to perceived loopholes in the technology. Data trust organisations such as the Writ Institute have identified one major area of weakness:
- The trustworthiness of a cert is directly dependent on the entity providing it. Though certain types of certs, such as the Global Media Provenance Standard (GMPS), follow rigorous guidelines to ensure the metadata’s accuracy and reliability, any individual can create a cert and freely choose which information it does or does not contain.