Deepfakes in Misinformation and Public Trust

Deepfakes increasingly contribute to disinformation as well. According to Vaccari and Chadwick (2020), findings indicate that exposure to the information that a video is fake, even after exposing audiences to the fraud, results in decreased trust in legitimate media, as well. This reduction in trust relative to audiovisual communications is problematic across numerous settings. For example, in a courtroom, where video or audio is assessed and traditionally highly persuasive, exposure to deepfakes could undermine what content is ever used as evidence for either legal or regulatory purposes. Accordingly, Maras and Alexandrou (2019) note that deepfakes increasingly help blur the distinction between legitimate and disinformation recordings, with no courts currently left with reliable mechanisms for factual determination.