MINOT, ND (KXNET) — As of March of this year, 21 states have enacted laws related to restricting deepfakes on the internet. The technology has seen growth across the United States since 2019. Deepfakes are classified as fake media created by artificial intelligence in which images or videos ar e manipulated, often using someone else's face. The CEO at Organization for Social Media Safety, Marc Berkman, says that deepfakes really started to take off about eight years ago. "A programmer released some code around 2017, 2018 that enabled someone to take someone's likeness, their image, and insert it into a video that the original person had nothing to do with, and the videos are hyperrealistic," Berkman said. Berkman says that one of the most concerning things about deepfakes is how they are being used to make explicit and illegal content, which currently accounts for about 98 percent of all deepfake content on the internet. Health experts warn of Measles risk after spring travel "We see on the ground and out in public people using people, using people's likeness and images in pornographic videos without their consent," Berkman said. Berkman says that outside of explicit content, deepfakes pose a big threat to folks both in small rural communities and in larger urban areas because of the possibility of fraud, especially when it comes to children. "Fraud is a big concern as well," he said. "We've seen cases where someone can duplicate someone's child in a deepfake and portray that they have been kidnapped asking for a ransom." However, Berkman says that lawmakers in Washington are currently working on a bill to try and get deepfakes off the internet faster. "Something that the Take It Down Act would do is enable people to go and request that the platform go and take this content down in a much quicker way than we typically see," he said. Berkman says about 70 percent of people can't tell the difference between a real photo and an AI doctored photo. For more information on how to spot deepfakes on the internet, click here. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Today's Top Stories SIGN UP NOW ...read more read less