The Post-Truth
Internet.
When "seeing is believing" is no longer valid, we need a new infrastructure for truth. We analyze the rise of C2PA, the "Liar's Dividend," and the legal obligation to label synthetic reality.
The Liar's Dividend
As deepfakes become perfect, bad actors no longer need to fake reality—they simply need to claim that real compromising evidence is fake. This erosion of evidentiary standards threatens judicial processes and corporate reputation management.
Courts are beginning to demand forensic authentication for digital evidence, moving away from the presumption of authenticity.
C2PA & Content Credentials
Cryptographic Provenance
The C2PA standard binds identity and edit history to a file using cryptography. It doesn't tell you if an image is "true," but it tells you who made it and how.
Regulatory Mandates
The EU AI Act (Art. 50) and the US Executive Order mandate watermarking and labeling for AI-generated content. Invisible watermarking (e.g., SynthID) is becoming a compliance requirement.
The Deepfake Epidemic: By the Numbers
EU AI Act Article 50: Transparency Requirements
Mandatory Disclosure: AI systems that generate or manipulate image, audio, or video content (deepfakes) must clearly label the output as artificially generated or manipulated.
Technical Implementation: Labels must be machine-readable (C2PA metadata) AND human-readable (visible watermark or disclaimer).
Penalty: Failure to comply can result in fines up to €15M or 3% of global turnover.
Detection Technology: The Arms Race
Traditional deepfake detection relied on spotting artifacts (unnatural blinking, edge inconsistencies). Modern generative models have eliminated these tells. The new frontier is biological signals—detecting the absence of micro-expressions, heartbeat-driven color changes, and eye saccades that real humans unconsciously produce.
Defensive Tech
Truepic Lens, Reality Defender, Intel FakeCatcher
Offensive Evolution
Adversarial training loops improve deepfakes faster than detection
Deepfake Defense Strategy
General Counsels must now prepare for "Synthetic Identity Attacks" on executives.
Implement multi-factor verification for any high-value wire transfers or contractual approvals initiated via video/audio.