Instagram won't take down 'deepfake' video of its CEO Mark Zuckerburg bragging about controlling data of billions

A fake video of Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg emerged on Instagram in which he is seen bragging about controlling billions of people's "stolen" personal data. Instagram, a Facebook-owned platform, has, however, reportedly decided to not take down the ultra-realistic "deep fake" video that was posted on Tuesday, June 11. 

In the video, Zuckerburg is seen blinking his eyes and using hand movements as he thanks 'Spectre' for showing him that those control data could control the future. This is what Zuckerburg has said in the fake video: 

"Imagine this for a second: one man with total control of billions of people's stolen data, all their secrets, their lives, their futures," a computer-generated Mark Zuckerberg says in the video. "I owe it all to Spectre. Spectre showed me that whoever controls the data controls the future."

The video was shared by British artist "Bill Posters", a pseudonym -- as part of the promotion for his project "Spectre", which looks at the outsize influence of technology and social media.

The video of Zuckerberg manipulates an actual statement from the chief executive and refers to Facebook's recent controversies over both stolen user data and one such manipulated video.

"The key issue is to interrogate privacy and the surveillance of our data," Posters told AFP.  "We wanted to create an artistic intervention into the Internet to shine a light on Mark Zuckerberg and explore how data is used in unexpected ways by opaque companies." Posters also welcomed the fact that Instagram was "not going to censor us as artists".

"Spectre", named after the secret villainous organization of the James Bond films, aims to discuss the power of digital influencers and information online, as well as what can or cannot be believed.

An Instagram spokesperson earlier said: "We will treat this content the same way we treat all misinformation on Instagram. "If third-party fact-checkers mark it as false, we will filter it from Instagram's recommendation surfaces", he added. 

Facebook recently came under fire for refusing to block the sharing of a video of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that had been doctored to make her appear drunk or impaired. Pelosi called on the social media giant to block the video, saying Facebook "knows that this is false".

Facebook did not remove the video but is quoted in media reports as saying that the video had been tagged as false and sank in the network's news feed ranking.