The malicious use of political deepfakes and attempts to neutralize them in Latin America

Abstract

Deepfake technology has revolutionized the field of artificial intelligence and communication processes, creating a real threat of misinformation of target audiences on digital platforms. The malicious use of political deepfakes has become widespread between 2017 and 2023. The political leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico were attacked with elements of doxing. Fake videos that used the politicians' faces undermined their reputations, diminishing the trust of the electorate, and became an advanced tool for manipulating public opinion. A series of political deepfakes has raised an issue for the countries of the Latin American region to develop timely legal regulation of this threat. The purpose of this study is to identify the threats from the uncontrolled use of political deepfake in Latin America. According to this purpose, the author solves the following tasks: analyzes political deepfakes; identifies the main threats from the use of deepfake technology; examines the legislative features of their use in Latin America. The article describes the main detectors and programs for detecting malicious deepfakes, as well as introduces a scientific definition of political deepfake.