"Deepfake" Story Backfires: Oregon News Project Retracts Report on Washington County Candidate
The nonprofit Oregon News Project retracted a story on October 20 about Washington County commission candidate Nafisa Faye and published an editor's note admitting the error. The story, published October 19, had called a video filmed at an October 10 event in Minneapolis a "deepfake": the video showed an upside-down American flag hanging behind Faye, and the story said right-wing social media accounts were using the video to attack Faye, a Somali immigrant, as "unpatriotic." According to the editor's note, the outlet interviewed Faye — who is running for Washington County chair — on October 16, and a supporter from her campaign then provided video of the same event showing the flag hanging right-side up.
But after the story ran, readers questioned the conflicting images, and new images the outlet subsequently obtained confirmed that the flag at the event was indeed hung upside down. The original story has been taken down, and the outlet said it "deeply regrets the error." The episode comes in the final stretch of the midterm campaign, with the Washington County chair race drawing close attention.
An upside-down flag is often used as a protest symbol in American politics, and whether this detail was real bears directly on how the candidate is judged — and underscores how hard verification becomes in election season.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Salem 的俄勒冈州议会大厦。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: The Oregon State Capitol in Salem. Source: Wikimedia Commons
