“Nowadays, even a video of me might not actually be me.”
Individuals used to believe what they can see online ，but this belief is fading quickly because of the creation of deepfake technology. Deepfakes are able to produce incredibly convincing images, voices and persuasive videos in a few seconds, and reality becomes hard to discern. Manipulated online videos have become rampant, and as such, there is more fraudulent information that appears real. This poses a lot of confusion between reality and falsehood, not only a misinformation problem, but an increasing information crisis of trust in online information.
One of the most important issues related to deepfake technology is the ability to create fake images that resemble reality and mislead it. It can modify faces in video and imitating voices that do not exist at all. Users are easily deceived by such strongly convincing content and most of them disperse misinformation as most people do not verify this content. This undermines online credibility and leaves the citizens unable to trust what they see and hear over the internet and even trust the real information may be on a low profile
Deepfake technology replacing a person’s face in a video, transforming original footage into manipulated content.
“This is a very serious problem! We can’t ignore it!”
What makes this even more is that NBC News states that individuals engage in deepfake technology to prepare fake political videos that are proposed to be evidence. This deceives the masses and destroys faith on the media. With the development of technologies, the issue is aggravated: increasing the number of fake videos. People question the authenticity of the content and, therefore, even honest sources are considered unreliable, which gives a chance for fake events to look authentic.
Illustration of fake news and misinformation, showing how manipulated content and propaganda can influence what people see and believe online.
Studies emphasized by MIT Technology Review suggest that AI can create counterfeit content and leverage fake news even faster. As AI-generated work is realistic and is highly visited by many, people accept and deem it true. This casts more doubt on the accrued facts and makes the internet a space that is viewed as plagued by deception which killed the trustworthiness in information presented on the internet.
In conclusion, deepfakes do not only produce fake content, but they also change the way people trust the information provided on the internet. Consequently, the internet as an agent of truth is being defeated as even authoritative sources are no longer considered useful.
Han Tianyong 
Yinan Zhou 
Xinyue HOU