09.12.2024

Dossier Deepfakes and the political reality

Maria Pawelec advised the German ederal Agency for Civic Education

The dossier ‘When appearances deceive - Deepfakes and political reality’ by the Federal Agency for Civic Education aims to inform the public about the current state of deepfake technology and its effects and to contribute to the debate on how to deal with deepfakes.

The dossier sheds light on the phenomenon of deepfakes from a wide range of perspectives and provides up-to-date, in-depth knowledge on topics such as the AI and technology behind deepfakes, their psychological effects, the various areas of application, politics, disinformation, softfakes and non-consensual pornography (deepporn), as well as uses for entertainment, virtual influencers and deepfakes in journalism. It also discusses current approaches to regulation (including in the area of criminal law, technical approaches to detecting deepfakes, and their effects in the area of discrimination. The dossier is coupled with teaching materials for teachers.

Maria Pawelec advised the bpb on the creation of the dossier and wrote several chapters, including overview chapters and the texts ‘Political manipulation and disinformation’, ‘’Softfakes‘ in election campaigns’ and ‘Opportunities for democracy’.

Click here for the dossier: https://www.bpb.de/lernen/bewegtbild-und-politische-bildung/551578/wenn-der-schein-truegt-deepfakes-und-die-politische-realitaet/