While the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) has made significant progress in recent years with Content Credentials and C2PA standards for still images, video has remained a slightly more challenging beast. However, YouTube, the largest video platform in the world, is now utilizing the C2PA standard to attach helpful information for some videos on YouTube.
While there are numerous caveats to consider, this is a significant step along the CAI’s ambitious and vital path toward widespread C2PA adoption. On its associated “help page,” YouTube describes its new “Captured with a camera” disclosure as helping to build trust on YouTube. This disclosure, located in a “How this content was made” section in the expanded description of some videos, shows the capture technology a creator used to make their video, which can verify a video’s origins and confirm that the audio and visuals have not been altered. This effort joins YouTube’s broader policy about disclosure concerning altered and synthetic video content.
The “Captured with a camera” feature, built on C2PA, works when creators use specific supported technology, including certain cameras, software, or mobile apps, that attaches the necessary secure metadata to the uploaded file. The metadata, as it does with still images that sport C2PA data, verifies the origins of the video and what, if any, edits have been made.
As expected, given not only how the C2PA standard works but also the early nature of the YouTube feature, there are limitations to consider. Creators must use tools with built-in C2PA support (version 2.1 or higher), and creators must not perform any edits that break the chain of provenance, obscure the source of the video, or save the video in a location that does not support C2PA 2.1 or higher at any point in the capture-to-publish chain. For now, that means a careful workflow. Over time, the CAI believes that widespread adoption of the C2PA standard and its associated technologies will make this hurdle significantly lower and, at some point, eliminate any friction altogether.
The very first verified authentic video to feature the new “Captured with a camera” label and information comes from Truepic, a tech company focused on developing and deploying tools to establish authenticity for digital content.
Sherif Hanna, C2PA Product Lead at Google, YouTube’s parent company, explains on Threads that “This is a day that many people have been working towards for many years, and I’m ecstatic that it’s finally here.”
Post by @sherifhanna
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Hanna’s words speak volumes. Although the resulting technological advancement could be seen as just a section of text in the expanded description for select YouTube videos, the underlying work is significant and took considerable effort from many people. Ultimately, it’s an important step that will hopefully set off a series of dominoes concerning improving transparency surrounding digital content on the platforms that many people use every day.
Image credits: Featured image created using an asset licensed via Depositphotos.
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