Deepfakes Are Killing Democracy. And No One Seems to Notice.
There was a time when you didn’t need to be an expert to vote. You could just skim the news, watch the evening broadcast, and get a general sense of things. Even if you weren’t well-informed, democracy still worked. Because the information ecosystem, though imperfect, was stable. There were journalists, editors, rules, and checks. Different opinions, yes, but grounded in facts.
That world no longer exists. And it never will again.
Generative AI has destroyed the very idea of visible truth. Deepfakes, fake videos, voices, and images that look completely real, are replacing reality with believable simulations. No filters. No verification. And millions of people fall for them every day.
The problem isn’t just technical. It’s political.
Because democracy is based on a simple idea: everyone can vote, even if they’re not well-informed. Even if they don’t have time, or access to in-depth knowledge. As long as the surrounding environment offers at least a minimum of shared truth. That environment is now poisoned. Intentionally.
This isn’t about newspapers shaping public opinion.
It’s about entire fake realities being built from scratch, targeted by group, by identity, by emotion. Personalized. Invisible. Amplified by bots, shared by friends, believed because they look real.
That’s why democracy is at risk.
Because if everyone can vote, but each person lives in a manipulated bubble, that vote isn’t free. It’s directed. Controlled. Whoever shapes the synthetic narratives controls the consensus. Period.
And this year, things got worse.
Deepfakes are no longer experimental. They’re everywhere. They’ve become a systematic weapon. With elections coming up across Europe, the U.S., Africa, and Asia, fake videos of politicians, fabricated news, and simulated scandals are already spreading.
This isn’t a future threat. We’re in it now.
And no one is stopping it.
Without a strong, independent global authority to identify, block, and sanction the use of deepfakes for mass manipulation, democracy won’t survive.
What we’ll have instead is manufactured consent, disguised as pluralism.
This isn’t a theory.
This is a bomb that has already gone off.
#ArtificialDecisions #MCC