Fake news and deepfakes: A dangerous threat for 21st century information security

Abstract

Fake news, often referred to as junk news or pseudo-news, is a form of yellow journalism or propaganda created with the purpose of distributing deliberate disinformation or false news using traditional print or online social media. Fake news has become a significant problem globally in the past few years. It has become common to find popular individuals and even members of the state using misinformation to influence individuals’ actions whether consciously or subconsciously. The latest trend is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create fake videos known as “deepfakes”. Deepfake, a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake”, is an artificial intelligence-based human image synthesis technique. It is used to combine and superimpose existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique called a “generative adversarial network” (GAN). The combination of the existing and source videos results in a fake video that shows a person or persons performing an action at an event that never occurred in reality. This paper provides an overview of the currently available creation and detection techniques to identify fake news and deepfakes. The outcome of this paper provides the reader with an adequate literature review that summarises the current state of fake news and deepfakes, with special attention given to the tools and technologies that can be used to both create and detect fake news or deepfake material.