By Charlotte Burks, The Stanford Daily

Have you ever seen the Pope in a puffer jacket? Glancing at the image, I fully believed that the Pope had simply elevated his style…until I read the CBS headline next to the image which read, “Fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket go viral.”

“To Trust or not to Trust: Authenticity in Design,” curated by Stanford’s Starling Lab for Data Integrity, is currently on view on the first floor of Green Library. The display includes the aforementioned image of the Pope, included amongst other icons such as Taylor Swift and the British Royal family.

Focusing on authenticity of images and storage of data, the display seems geared towards the aesthetic of computer geeks — but the content is comprehensible even for those who have never taken CS106A.

The exhibition begins with an alarming declaration of the stake authenticity holds in democracy, including the fact that 60 countries are hosting elections within the next year, impacting more than 4 billion people. If these numbers seem too big to truly quantify, a quote by Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa included within the exhibition puts it more simply: “We will know whether democracy lives or dies by the end of 2024.” 

Once the viewer is adequately uncomfortable and decently concerned, though, the display launches into an explanation of “Tech, Tools, & Terms” to ease some of that confusion. The exhibition panel includes highlighted terms which may be unclear in red and definitions at the bottom in a “Key Terms” section. 

Excerpted from 'Green Library exhibit emphasizes the importance of transparency in the digital age,' The Stanford Daily. 

The exhibit is available through February 14, 2025 in Hohbach Hall, Main Exhibit Promenade, 557 Escondido Mall, Stanford, CA 94305.