FAQ

20 Questions and Answers

  • 1. What’s the big idea?

    “Label trustworthy images, not deceptive ones.”

    How does the TTG label work?

  • 2. What does it mean when a video is labeled TTG?

    If the “TTG” is in a context you fully trust and it also lists the video creator’s name, it means that the video creator is making the Trust Test Guarantee (“This video meets all 9 requirements of the Trust Test”).

    But if the “TTG” is in a context you do not trust or if you are suspicious for any other reason, just disregard the TTG label.

  • 3. Is it hard to make videos that qualify for the TTG label?

    It couldn’t be easier!

    Just put your smartphone on “Video,” avoid any effects, record a normal video of something, and then leave the video exactly as is.

    (The changes that are allowed are spelled out in the Trust Test.)

  • 4. So the public already sees lots of TTG-qualified videos?

    Yes. Most of the millions of videos recorded every hour on people’s smartphones would qualify as TTG.

    There is nothing exotic or exclusive about TTG videos; they’re just largely unaltered videos that don’t involve any trickery or added effects.

  • 5. Why have a label that applies to billions of videos?

    Because when a video is striking, viewers want to know whether it is a record of a real-world event or scene — or whether AI-generated content was added.

    (Videos only qualify as TTG if no AI content has been added.)

  • 6. Are most news broadcasts TTG-qualified?

    Not the full broadcasts, but many of the short video segments within news broadcasts would qualify as TTG.

    Most full broadcasts from news organizations rely on visual and audio effects that disqualify videos from TTG, including voiceovers, views from multiple cameras, cuts, edits, dissolves, overlays and inserts of graphics and words, and supplemental (B-roll) video footage.

  • 7. Why aren’t there more long TTG videos?

    • One reason is because of “boredom prevention.”

    To keep viewers engaged for longer than a few seconds, creators of videos use creative tools that disqualify videos from TTG such as voiceovers, music, views from multiple cameras, cuts, edits, dissolves, overlays and inserts of graphics and words, supplemental (B-roll) video footage, and AI-generated content.

    • Another reason is that the longer the video, the more chance there is of an error.

    If the person speaking stumbles on a word or a dog barks or a baby cries or someone coughs off-camera, there is no TTG-allowable way to correct such things (so they have to remain in the video if it is to qualify as TTG).

  • 8. How can trusted news/information providers make use of TTG?

    There are two main ways, fleshed out on the Publishing page:

    A. Post short* standalone TTG-qualified videos.

    B. Embed short* TTG-qualified videos in longer pieces, signaling with a quick “TTG” on screen the start and end of any TTG-qualified segments.

    “B” is the video equivalent of the “quotation marks” in a news article.

    ________________
    *TTG videos can be as long as desired, but see #7 above.

  • 9. What was the source of the Trust Test?

    There were four sources:

    • The actions that are “baked in” on billions of smartphones

    • The practices of trusted news organizations

    • The behavior of billions of smartphone users

    • The principles of ttg.photos

    More on these

  • 10. How do people sign up for TTG? How much does it cost?

    There is never any signing up and never any cost.

    Like the “Nonfiction” label on books, TTG is a principle, not a product.

    That means that there is never any cost, registration, licensing, or permission involved in using any aspect of TTG — not for anyone, anywhere, anytime.

  • 11. Who can attach the TTG label to a video?

    Anyone, at any level, anywhere in the world can make the Trust Test Guarantee by attaching the TTG label to their own video(s).

    Because it reflects a personal guarantee, the TTG label can only be attached by video creators to their own videos — never to someone else’s — and viewers should disregard the label if the video creator is not identified.

    When anyone other than the video creator— say, a news provider — shares a TTG-labeled video, they simply publish the name of the video creator who is staking his or her reputation on the Trust Test Guarantee.

  • 12. Won’t it hurt TTG when lots of people on social media attach the TTG label to non-TTG-qualified videos?

    No, not at all. Any misuse of the TTG label that prompts viewers to say, “That is a place where I would not trust the TTG label”...

    . . . only advances TTG’s goal of helping the public evaluate image sources.

    In other words,

    • Use of the TTG label will help trustworthy image sources

    • Use of the TTG label will hurt untrustworthy image sources

  • 13. What kinds of videos is the TTG label useful for?

    The TTG label can be useful in any context where viewers wonder whether they are seeing only “what the camera saw and heard,” whatever the subject was.

    Thus the TTG label is suited not just for “news” purposes but also for countless “non-news” subjects.

  • 14. What does the TTG label look like?

    As with the “Nonfiction” label for books, the TTG label doesn’t have a single “look.”

    Video creators are free to label TTG-qualified videos any way they want (apart from V4’s prohibition of putting into the image area anything that the camera did not see at the time of exposure).

    See #2 on the Publishing page for more.

  • 15. What if I don’t personally have a need for TTG?

    That’s fine! Use of TTG is always completely optional and voluntary.

    Since each person applies the TTG label only to their own videos — never to anyone else’s — those who have no need for TTG can easily ignore it.

  • 16. What about videos that have no AI but can still be deceptive, like a video of a roaring zoo lion that is implied to be in the wild?

    TTG makes it easy to avoid deception, by alerting viewers to “inapparent circumstances” in the making of the video.

    Any time that “inapparent circumstances” are likely to cause deception, in order to meet V8 of the Trust Test TTG video creators are required to use the TTG-IC version of the label (adding a * when needed to point to additional explanation).

    When viewers see TTG-IC, it means that the video creator is declaring that the video shows what the camera saw — but that the video does not depict what it appears to depict because of “inapparent circumstances.”

    For more on TTG-IC, see #3 on the Publishing page

  • 17. What about posed videos? What about staged videos?

    Posed videos in which viewers can instantly detect the set-up aspects are unlikely to deceive viewers, so no special treatment is usually necessary.

    However, staged videos in which viewers cannot instantly detect the set-up aspects are likely to deceive viewers, so staged videos can qualify as TTG only if the “TTG-IC” version of the label is used (see #16 above).

  • 18. What about the use of tools like beauty filters to enhance the video aspects and Auto Tune to enhance the audio aspects?

    Those are both disqualified by the Trust Test.

    The TTG label is for videos that show what the camera saw and heard, not what the video creator wishes the camera had seen and heard.

    Details

  • 19. Can selfie videos qualify as TTG?

    Yes, videos of any subject (except one) can qualify as TTG as long as they meet all of the requirements of the Trust Test.

    Note that removal of the depiction of selfie-sticks, like removal of anything else by any means other than trimming or cropping, disqualifies a video from V4.

  • 20. Why not label AI-generated videos instead of non-AI ones?

    Because it would be difficult to enforce a labeling requirement for even a tiny fraction of the millions of AI-infused videos that are already online.

    Images are not constrained by national borders, and the most dangerous images coming from other countries are unlikely to come with warning labels.

    There is only one realistic defense against the coming deluge of deceptive images: having the public continually identify which image sources are the most trustworthy. The only way to identify those sources is through frequently applied trust tests.