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The House Intelligence Committee heard alarming testimony Thursday that deepfake videos could be weaponized by foreign adversaries to sow divisions in the United States.

Clint Watts, a former FBI special agent and senior fellow for Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund, warned lawmakers that Russia and China will likely both work to develop “synthetic media capabilities” for use against the U.S. and other adversaries.

“China’s artificial intelligence capabilities rival the U.S., are powered by enormous data troves to include vast amounts of information stolen from the U.S., and the country has already shown a propensity to employ synthetic media in television broadcast journalism,” he said.

Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) described the videos as a “nightmarish scenario” to legislate.

He also called on social media companies to take action, adding that waiting until after the 2020 elections would be too late.

Republicans also voiced concerns about deepfake videos during the hearing but expressed fears that filters to control the videos could treat conservatives unfairly.

Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the committee, said the filters, if left in the hands of tech companies, would be created by left-wing partisans.

“How do you put in filters to these tech oligarch companies?” Nunes asked at one point in the hearing. “There are only a few of them … that are not developed by [the] partisan left-wing,” he continued

Nunes added that “most of the time it is conservatives who get banned and not Democrats.”

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a former CIA officer, told reporters the government should do “basic research” on how to combat deepfakes that can be shared with both agencies and the private sector.

He said social media companies should work on their ability to identify the creators of deepfakes, while the State Department or FBI should focus on prosecuting actors linked to foreign countries.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) cautioned that the government will have to avoid over-reaching when it comes to policing deepfake videos, warning parody or satiric videos should not be censored.

“I think it’s a really hard question, but I would really urge and will urge the Congress to proceed very, very carefully, because as scary as deepfake technology is, the prospect of damaging our rights to free expression, the right to satirize politicians is also pretty scary,” Himes told reporters.