The rise of deepfakes poses a new trust challenge for publishers
As AI deepfakes spread faster and become more difficult to detect, publishers are caught in the crosshairs, with fact-checking teams working harder to verify what’s real and protect their organization’s credibility in an internet flooded with AI-generated content.
Fresh data shows the deepfakes are spiking. A new report from IdentifAI, a startup focused on detecting deepfakes and other AI-generated or AI-altered content, identified 3,165 incidents of deepfakes in March 2026 alone, up from just four in January 2020.
The report, which was based on 10,000 deepfake incidents, spotlighted a clear escalation: synthetic media and manipulation have entered a more dangerous phase globally, with deepfakes fueling political instability, enabling large-scale financial exploitation, and shaping public perception. The incidents were often amplified by social media algorithms, according to the report.
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On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors
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Digital technology has irrevocably altered the media landscape. As traditional sources of credible information — gatekeepers — lose influence, jostled and often replaced by content of uncertain pedigree, many users lack the requisite skills to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, sense from nonsense. The market doesn’t reward one over the other — social media algorithms often produce better business outcomes with falsehoods — prompting some dedicated efforts to empower users with better critical-thinking tools.