// platform mechanics

Source: The Verge

Google is shifting liability and authenticity verification onto individual users rather than enforcing systemic transparency—a move that conflicts with regulatory momentum toward mandatory AI disclosure. By making watermark removal optional rather than baked into technical infrastructure, Google creates compliance theater where responsible disclosure becomes a user choice rather than a platform requirement, while retaining the option to generate unmarked synthetic media. This concentrates authenticity-policing power among those with technical sophistication to detect deepfakes, leaving others to assess synthetic content blind.