Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the leading social network is struggling to find ways to deal with "deepfake” videos that have the potential to cheat and manipulate users on a massive scale.

Zuckerberg said that Facebook is trying to determine whether "fakes" are different from disinformation and added that "there is a lot of evidence that they are," AFP reported.

Speaking at the Aspen Ideas festival in Colorado, Zuckerberg said Facebook and other social networks will face the challenge of coping with network counterfeits as they step up their efforts to eliminate disinformation and the company is still evaluating what to do.

“There is a question of whether deepfakes are actually just a completely different category of thing from normal false statements overall,” he told Harvard legal scholar Cass Sunstein at the Aspen Ideas Festival, “and I think there is a very good case that they are.”

“I definitely think there’s a good case that deepfakes are different from traditional misinformation, just like spam is different from traditional misinformation and should be treated differently,” he said. 

"I think is likely sensible to have a different policy and to treat this differently than how we just treat normal false information on the internet.”, Zuckerberg said at the forum.

The comments come amid the growing concern about Internet counterfeits that use artificial intelligence to make them look real.

“Is it AI-manipulated media or manipulated media using AI that makes someone say something they didn’t say?” Zuckerberg asked. “I think that’s probably a pretty reasonable definition.”

Earlier this month, Facebook has decided not to take down a fake video of Zuckerberg himself in Instagra, with the understanding that the Chief Executive Officer will not have a special attitude.

Online platforms must be very careful as working to eradicate disinformation and manipulation efforts while at the same time assert freedom of speech on the internet.

Zuckerberg said it was a constant challenge, repeating its position that Facebook should not be an arbitrator of the truth on the Internet.

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