A few days ago, the deeptomcrouse account in TikTok went viral for the fidelity of the fake videos of the famous movie-star uploaded to the popular platform. Objections were quickly recorded about how easily one can now present something fake in such a plausible way that you cannot distinguish it from the original version.
Of course, the creator himself may have defended his work by claiming that it took hours of hard work for the final result, obviously, however, this is not the issue here. The question is not whether such a subtle deception is easy or not for anyone to achieve.
The issue is the big blow to the credibility of a medium that is dominant today and that, if anything, is dubbed as absolutely objective: the video. In the age of fragmented information, a video from the “heart of events” is usually the catalyst for shaping personal opinion, but also, consequently, public opinion.
With deep fake technology on the rise, however, it is only a matter of time before video is discredited as a source of – albeit fragmentary – truth. And when the certainty and the objective collapse, in their place emerge the propaganda, the deception, and the lie.
